Garden of Eden
by Xenter
Summary: She thoughts she was immune to the infection that rampaging across the world, but was she really immune or was it because she wasn't entirely human for it to affect her at all? What would she say if she knew the truth? Could the world be safe if she accepted him? What would happen to all those that she left behind if she accepts his offer for salvation? What would Joel do? R&R!
1. Seed of the Earth

**Garden of Eden: Naruto x Last of Us Crossover**

**Disclaimer: **This story is fiction, all the characters, names and places belong to their respective owners.

**M-Rated: **Blood, gore, and among other things.

"Talking"  
>'Thoughts'<br>Names of Things  
>"<span>Memory Lane<span>"  
>"<strong>Demonic Voice<strong>"  
>(Thought Bubbles)<br>**_Important Stuff_**

Finally finish this game on my PS4! So I'll write a story for it. You don't need to play the game to read this as I'll explain things in simplest term as possible, but it helped if you did know how the story went in the game.

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><p><strong>=[Garden of Eden]=<br>Seed of the Earth**

"Have you never thought why you are completely infected but still retained your mind?" a man asked, sitting at one end of the table.

"Because I'm immune?" The girl replied hesitantly. She was sitting at the other end as it was the furthest distance. She was frightened of him and wanted to know what happened to her friend Joel.

"…"

A pregnant silence occurred before a chuckle was noted from the blond. "Musume, no one is immune, the reason you still retained your mind is because you are not entirely human," he finally said. She wondered what he just called her. It sounded Japanese.

**XxXxX**

"623," a voice counted after a thunderous sound.

"624," came from the same voice as the same sound echoed throughout the area.

"625."

"Hmm…" the blond mumbled after a brief pause. One of his eyes was pressed against a scope end as he used it to scan the surrounding from his high above ground position. There was no way to access that spot as it was just a metal platform dangling off of a towering crane. His ears twitched as he heard the faint clicking sound followed by rattling. A small smile crept across his face as the scope zoomed to the desired locations, pinpointing it like a predator hunting down the greatest prey: man.

The onyx high powered sniper rifle went off again as he pressed the trigger, holding it steadily with both hands. The heavy weapon wasn't bolted to the ground as it should have, and he was holding it in an upright position. The recoil produced by the shot was massive for any mortal as it would destroy their shoulder in the process, but he wasn't one. The aerodynamic machined bullet spun up through the long barrel of the weapon and sailed through the air after exiting. It slammed into a deformed face of a man as the tip of the bullet compressed on impact and spattered the remains along the path from the other side. An instant kill.

"626," he counted his headshot streak as he pulled the level to the side of the weapon, expelling the bullet casing and pushed in ammos as a replacement. The highly modified sniper could hold up to nine rounds for consecutive fire. It was a number he liked as it reminded him of his former companion long ago. His blue eye scanned around the area below once more, trying to locate any possible targets. His keen ears attempted to separate any subtle sounds that it was able to discern. When something was caught by it, his scope immediately locked onto that area and waited patiently.

"Shit… what the fuck is this guy?" asked a man with dense beard and a wool cap over his head. He was holding a common pistol with one hand while leaning against the wall along with his partner. Both adorned ragged and discolored attire, consisting of worn out jeans and jackets.

"How did he get up there?" The other, younger one, asked. However, the first one simply shook his head as there was no way for the blond to be up there unless he climbed up the crane and jumped off at the end. That was impossible as he would break his leg if he landed on the hanging platform or worst, missed it completely and splattered on the ground.

Clicking and groaning sounds could be heard nearby and the duo became agitated as they knew what those were.

"Shit… what do we do?" the younger one asked with panic in his voice. The older told him to be quiet as three Clickers were running towards them. They pointed their weapons at them, but before they could do anything more, each infected fell and crashed to the ground after their head splattered by a high caliber bullet. The duo exhaled a breath of relief, looking at each other.

"Does he miss at all?" the older one asked, seeing how every thunderous sound accompanied by a kill. Not just typical kill, it was always a headshot. Even the best marksman would have missed occasionally.

"Maybe it's the gun?" the younger one answered with a question. However, the older one shook his head as a reply. He didn't think so. There was no way for someone to never miss no matter how good they were or what weapon they were using. It was simply impossible, at least as far as he was concern.

"We should surrender?" the younger one asked another question. The older man pointed at the dead guy nearby to give his answer. That unfortunate SOB, once was their comrade, got his head blown off the moment he stuck his neck out. He wasn't an infected at all like the majority of the dead littered around the area.

Cordyceps Brain Infection, as everyone called it now, had killed or infected more than half the human population in just a few months. Those that survived quickly lost their higher brain function; their individuality and humanity to become mindless monsters, whose only goal was to infect others through bite or worst… airborne spores as their infection grew. Anarchy and chaos followed and everyone was for themselves. That was twenty years ago. Society pretty much collapsed with pockets of survivors scattered across the nation, trying to live their remaining lives away from the horrors. There was only a few government controlled quarantine area called "safe-zone". It was not safe there.

Furthermore, there was no cure. This was how everyone died; either a bullet to the head or become those things.

The duo was part of a survivor groups known as Hunters, who control certain territory throughout the country. People that passed through these territories, known as tourists, must paid a toll to them. It wasn't much, simply everything they had, including their lives in brutal and gruesome manner. That was the life these Hunters chose, and they relished in it. However, one gloomy day, a strange blond tourist appeared, passing through the territory and started slaughtering them like some sort of game. The Hunter didn't like that and retaliated. Now only a handful remained as their numbers dwindling down to nothing.

The older Hunter picked up a bottle and threw it to the side to create a distraction as he scooted himself along the wall. His head was blown off when a sniper bullet drilled into his temple after passing the small gap between the barriers.

"FUCKER!" the younger Hunter roared, seeing how his companion just died and start shooting at the blond above with his hand sticking out of the cover. Some bullets impacted against the mark, spraying out blood but the receiver didn't seem to mind at all. The man then grabbed his dead's companion gun, standing up to…

That was a mistake. His body collapsed backwards from the force as trail of blood drenched the dirt further behind him.

"Hmm…" Naruto muttered, checking the bullet wounds on his body as he dug deep into his flesh and pull them out. It was painful doing that, but he simply ignored it. The bleeding wounds quickly healed itself, and returning his body to tip top shape once more. He then scanned around the area again, checking if there was more target.

"This is getting boring…" Naruto sighed, removing his eyes from the scope. He had been in this world for the last fifteen years. It was fun for the first year as the world was rampaged by an infection that seemingly turned people feral which some had dubbed zombies. The infection, of course, didn't affect him at all.

Naruto met some very interesting people during that year, especially a nurse who tried her hardest to save everyone in the chaos; something that the blond found amusing so he decided to play a game with her. He had given her the chance to save the world from its fate in exchange for her life if she lost. Unfortunately, she did and as the rule dictated, he would have ended her life right then. However, she begged for more time, exchanging something very personal in return. Naruto took it and he granted her an extension to complete whatever she needed.

Naruto yawned as his supernatural aura coated his body while still holding onto the powered rifle with both hands. He must have killed all the humans in the week he was at this spot. Quickly rotated the gun in his hand, he snapped it in half and crushed it into bits before letting the dismantled pieces fell downward to the ground.

With a snap of his finger, numerous roots erupted from the earth, sliding along the dirt and ground like snakes. The center of the mass grew in size forming a massive tree as its roots continue to spread outwards above and under the ground. The twisting wooden spikes impaled every bodies it came in contact with; infected or not; dead or alive. The clickers that were still around groaned as their bodies were pierced by several. Their flesh was stripped and absorbed through root as nutrient, and their bodies decreased in size, leaving behind a skeleton remain with some skins left. The spikes then threw those skeletal remains aside with a flick, and they shattered into pieces against the wall or ground.

Naruto jumped off the stringed up platform as a branch slow his descent when he landed on it. It quickly moved him towards the tree as another smaller branch formed from the main body. The nutrients the tree sapped filtered inside it, separating everything apart, removing any contamination before manipulating the useful part to create something editable. An apple grew rapidly at the bottom of that branch. Once it reached it desired size, Naruto picked it. He rubbed his hands across its shiny red surface of the fruit with a smile before biting into it and found it was tasty and juicy enough. With a nod of approval, the tree grew different kinds: melon, peaches, bananas, grapes…

"This will take a long time, but you can do it," The blond said, placing a hand on the tree's body with a smile as he felt the wood throbbed underneath like veins of a living person. Naruto looked at the sky as leaves started to shower the area and grass filled the surroundings. The outer edges of the area were carved up slowly as the root moved outwards to increase its controlled territory. It was breaking through solid concrete and metal with little difficulty.

**XxXxX**

It had been a couple of months since Joel and Ellie returned back to Jackson County from their travel across country. It was done to bring Ellie to the resistance stronghold as she might hold the key to creating a vaccine against the infection. However, they must examine the fourteen-year-old brain for the mutated strains, killing her in the process in an effort to create a vaccine. Joel didn't accept that conclusion, and practically slaughtered everyone in the building, and possibly killing the last neurosurgeon on the planet in his rage.

It was a selfish act, and he wasn't a hero. Joel was just average man, once a father, who had lost his daughter twenty years ago to the outbreak. If given the choice again, he would choose Ellie over humanity without hesitation as he saw her as his surrogate daughter.

Both had been staying here in Jackson County, where Tommy, Joel's brother, and his wife, Maria, resided. It was supposed to be a run-down town, but after getting the hydroelectric dam working to supply power to the town, the place became much more livable. Families settled around the town, expanding it while every able body put in the effort to make the town sustainable. Everything was going smoothly, but like all good thing, it must come in an end.

"What do you mean it's infected?" Tommy asked, pointing at the deer they just caught. There was some fungus growing in front of its jaw as the people around frowned.

"It's infected, Tom. It just stood there, ignoring me before I shot it like it didn't care about me at all just like those runners, ignoring everything else that weren't their own kind… I mean us. I wouldn't eat this thing if I were you," one of the men said, indicating at the deer. It seemed like species specific Cordyceps Infection was spreading out to other larger mammals.

There were stages to the infection. The first stage, **_Runner_**, occurred around 1-2 days of infection. As the fungus grew in the infected brain, it takes away the higher brain function of its host. The second stage was dubbed as **_Stalker_**, which occurred around 1-2 weeks of infection. It caused the host to lose their eyesight and grant them some sort of echolocation ability to compensate. The third stage was known as **Clicker**, which completely deformed much of its host head after 1-2 years of infection, granting them harden fungus plate and making it difficult to kill them. The last known stage was **_Bloater_**, which occurred after almost 2 decades.

"But that wouldn't affect us would it? Cordyceps is specific, if this type of strain was affecting the deer, it shouldn't affect us," Maria argued but the men simply shook their head slightly. They didn't know the answers to that, and wasn't about to be a guinea pig to find out.

"I ain't trying that," one of them voiced his refusal as the other nodded in unison. No one going to eat something that looked like it was infected by the virus that had rampaging throughout the world for the last two decades.

"Not saying that you have to, we can spare one of the rats can't we?" Maria asked her husband for support. He gave it as they cut up the deer and cooked it before feeding to one of the rats they kept in pent for breeding. The times were harsh after all and rodents were also a good source of food to keep them alive. After two days, the rat became feral and started attacking other rat in the same cell, infecting the clean one in the process.

"Shit! This's just fucked up, what do we do now?" Tommy asked. The men didn't know. Growing food takes time, and there wasn't much supply left in the country as every buildings was ransacked dozens of times over. Fishes were scarce as well.

"Tommy, you need to see this," Joel called out after entering the room. Most of people already inside paid some attention to the man.

"Not now Joel, I'm a bit busy with this problem," Tommy told his brother. However, Joel insisted and Tommy complied after telling the others to check their tamed animals for any sign of infection while he was gone.

"What is it?" Tommy asked as he followed Joel to the side of the gate. There were a few new comers, trying to get into the stronghold. They were being checked for infection by a nifty handheld device. One of younger ones was talking to Ellie, and she handed Tommy the camera as the two men came closer. Ellie and Joel already watched the video moment before, but Tommy hadn't.

"My God…" Tommy watched the first part of the tape before heading back to the meeting room to join the rest. He also gave the group who brought in the information a good place in the town in exchange as soon as they were cleared. Joel joined the meeting with his brother afterwards.

"Let me in! I want to see!" Ellie shouted outside as she wasn't allowed in. Joel sighed a little, hearing her voice from his seated spot. She continued to curse and insulted the guard at the door while everyone else coughed a little, trying their best to ignore her choice of words.

"You all have to see this," Tommy said, pressing play and placing the device on the table before everyone. Within the video, a very bloated **_Bloater_** was chained up around small animals before it exploded, spraying out dense fog of spores. These spores quickly contaminated the ground and air in the stuff and infected the animals while a weary man, who was carrying the experiment, spoke up.

"As you can see; the final stages of the Bloater are to expand and explode, creating clouds of Cordyceps to maximize the chance of infection. Not only that, the new spores have mutated to adapt to other species… if this was to continue, every biological organism would be infected… " the man said and explained more about the process as the camera fast forwards to a few days later. The animals that inhaled the stuff became feral, showing infection had adapted to more species than just human.

"Fucking incubator, that's what we are," Tommy shouted with anger. That would explained why Bloater only been seen in recent months. The final stages of the virus must have taken at least two decades to complete. Joel pointed out that the dust clouds seemed to remain airborne and moving along with the breeze. This made them even more dangerous and they could spread into the town easily from the outside.

"… we know what happened to the deer now, one of 'em did it!"

"What do we do now? If it happened to one animal, it could happen to the rest…" another person in the room said as panic set in. Protests and complains started flying back and forth across the room. Maria was shouting at them to shut up while Tommy rubbing his temple as he getting a headache. A handgun went off in the midst as everyone drew their weapons and pointed at Joel on reflex.

"Yeah? Are going to bicker or are we going to work out how to stop this?" Joel asked before Tommy nodded and told everyone to stand down. They put their gun away and became much quieter.

"We know at least one of the Bloater made it this far, there might be more out there. We can't let them get close to town. I say we go out, scout the surrounding area and find these fuckers and roast their sorry asses," one of the hothead in the room suggested.

"Are you fucking insane? Just one screw up and it's over, I'm not going out there. I have a wife and kid man," another person called out as everyone began to shout again. It was very dangerous to be a Scavenger, which had really high death rate. Still, as scavenger, they avoid the infected all together and now someone suggested of going hunting down those rather than avoiding them.

"Enough! I'll do it if no one man up, these Bloater are dangerous if they get closer to town!" Tommy bellowed and slammed his palm on the table, stopping everyone's bickering.

"You can't," Maria called out. She was about to say something more, but was interrupted.

"Maria's right, you're too important for this town to lose," Joel said in agreement and leering at Maria for some reason. Most of the men agreed with the statement from their nodding.

"I'm not more important than anyone here, we all put in the effort to build this town. I don't want it all to go to waste," Tommy argued, looking as his wife. Maria was frowning at first, but then exhaled a little. Her husband was like that; he always wanting to do more for the town even though he did plenty already.

"I think the best chance is have Joel do it, he been outside of town several times now and have much more experience so he would have greater chance of surviving than any us," Maria asserted, making everyone paid their attention at Joel. They were waiting for him to speak up.

"Yeah okay, I'll do it," Joel said after some self-reflection and stood up from his spot.

"I will join you," Tommy declared after leering at his wife, but Joel shook his head as a refusal.

"Going in bigger group will only attract more attention from them, and you're needed here. I just need one more man to watch my back in case things get nasty," Joel said, looking around the room for some volunteer. Everyone stared each other, fidgeting before one of them put his hand up.

"Godamnit Joel, why can't I go with you, we fought side by side before," Tommy called out but Joel left the room without answering. Vincent, who volunteered, followed Joel immediately. Everyone else vacated after a few minutes to allow their leader sometime alone, and Maria stayed behind to comfort her husband.

**XxXxX**

"Where are you going?" Ellie asked as Joel checked his backpack and ammos. It was obvious he was readying to go somewhere beyond the safety perimeter of the town.

"Just on a quick errand," Joel replied, leering at the auburn-haired teenager, who he came to care deeply about. The green eyes girl returned the gaze.

"Don't fucking lie to me, Joel," Ellie shouted as she didn't believe his words as she estimated how long he would be gone for. The late 40's year old man exhaled as he tightened the backpack, making sure everything was in place. He faced the girl afterwards.

"It's just an errand, nothing dangerous, I will be back soon, so stay here," Joel reassured.

"Fuck that, if it's not dangerous then I'm coming with you," Ellie told him sternly. The heavy build man with dark hair chuckled and nodded.

"Alright, go ready your back pack, we will head off first thing in the morning," Joel said as Ellie became more cheerful. She quickly hurried to get her gears ready. Joel sat down on his bed, rubbing his eyes before lying down on it. There was no arguing with Ellie as it would just waste time. Ellie finished her task swiftly and climbed up onto her bunk bed above Joel. There was not enough living space in the town and they had to make do with what they were given.

"Hey Joel," Ellie called out, leaning out the side of her bed. Joel looked up at her from his position.

"Yea?"

"It's great, we going to do thing together again like we used to, together," Ellie said as she was beginning to get tired of shoving aside like a little kid in the town. She had handled a gun; killed plenty of people in the past year and everyone still wouldn't let her help out as much as she liked.

"Yeah, I'll always be by your side," Joel said as his eyes became unfocused.

"Promise?"

"Alright, now go to sleep, we have a big day ahead of us tomorrow," Joel said as he closed his eyes and started to drift into the dream world. Ellie smiled and repositioned herself on her own bed and did the same.

"Goodbye, baby girl," Joel said as he kissed Ellie's forehead. The girl squirmed a little with a smile on her face as if she was having a good dream. It was not morning yet as the sun hadn't risen, but it was time he should be going. He silently exited the room and closed the door gently. He then walked through the hall and outside where another man with dense beard was waiting for him.

"Maria wanted to talk to us first," Vincent said as Joel nodded and followed him.

"Thanks for doing this, you know how stubborn Tommy is, always put others before himself," the pale blond-haired female said.

"No problem, at least he had a chance at a family, unlike me. Take care of her for me, Maria, and don't let her out of your sight; she's rash, but a good girl," Joel requested as Maria agreed.

"I hope I'll be back soon, before the baby, my niece or nephew. You have a chance of a real family, I just hope Tommy realized that," Joel said with a small smile. There wasn't much thing to be happy about, but this was one of those things.

"No, you have to get back, and I do know that, why didn't you tell me? I thought there were some sort of quarrel going on between you two," Tommy called out, moving out from the shadow. Joel sighed, seeing his brother had been stalking them. Maria quickly apologized to Tommy for not telling him she was pregnant.

"How many months?" Tommy asked, holding his wife's tummy.

"I don't know, probably two, I been getting morning sickness lately and you're too busy to notice," Maria answered as Tommy smirked a little.

"Let's go, Vincent," Joel said as Vincent nodded and followed behind. They were allowed to pass through the gate while Tommy hoping his brother would return soon and safe.

"Joel, you asshole, you lied to me, I'm going fucking to stab you, I swear," Ellie muttered as she hid around the corner, checking the checkpoint ahead. The sun was up and she found herself alone in her room. She immediately noticed Joel's backpack was gone and ran to the gate, only to be stopped by Tommy and Maria. She immediately understood what exactly had happened from Tommy's explaination. Joel and Vincent were going out to hunt down any Bloater to prevent the spore from entering the place. It was incredibly dangerous. Ellie couldn't believe it and practically kneed Tommy in the nuts on impulse and ran off, leaving Maria to tend her husband as he grunted in pain.

"Have you found her?" Tommy asked, rubbing his leg a little.

"My brother going to kill me if I lose her, just one thing I have to do and I screwed it up," Tommy scolded himself. He should have handled the situation better. He could have lied to the girl, but he didn't. There was only a few ways out of the town, and they were all guarded. Ellie wanted to run after Joel so she helped him in his task right after she kills the man for leaving her behind. Ellie pondered how she could get out Jackson County without arousing suspicions. She thought long and hard about it, before shaking her head.

"Fuck it," Ellie said as she flipped her outerwear inside out and rubbed dirt on her face to mask it somewhat. She walked to the most unused gate; where very few stationed guards knew her. Chances were; none there knew her at all.

"Halt, you need permission to go outside, little girl," one of the man announced after Ellie approached the gate.

"I like this place…" Ellie said as the man raised an eyebrow. She told him to come closer as she shown him her bitten mark. The man jerked back after seeing it. He raised his guns at her.

"I want to get the f… out here and die on my own term," Ellie implored as the man nodded. He didn't want to shoot an innocent girl, but was baffled on how she managed to enter the town, passing through the inspection. He would have to talk to Tommy about that. Ellie grinned once she was let out of the gate and ran off in the distance, looking for where Joel and Vincent went.

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><p><strong>Author Note:<strong>

Hope you enjoy the first chapter. This is a short story, only 3 or 4 chapters long. Five if I was pushing it if there were more interest. Hopefully I can complete this in a week or so.

**_Comment, criticisms and review are welcome!  
>Flaming and insults will be ignored!<em>**


	2. Bonds Between Us

**Garden of Eden: Naruto x Last of Us Crossover**

**Disclaimer: **This story is fiction, all the characters, names and places belong to their respective owners.

"Talking"  
>'Thoughts'<br>Names of Things  
>"<span>Memory Lane<span>"  
>"<strong>Demonic Voice<strong>"  
>(Thought Bubbles)<br>**_Important Stuff_**

This chapter is kind of gruesome… I tried not to describe much about the death scene, but it's hard not to write about it at all as Last of Us' world is a crap sack world. It's a zombie apocalypse where everyone tried to kill each other so they could loot your stuff.

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><p><strong>=[Garden of Eden]=<br>Bonds Between Us**

"Incoming!" Vincent shouted as he ran towards Joel. The duo immediately dashed through the door and pushed it closed with their body. One of the hands was stopping them from doing that and Vincent smashed his axe into the Clicker's head, killing it and allowing the door to be shut fully. They barricaded it with whatever lying around and entered another room down the corridor, away from the banging from the other side.

"We're haven't found one yet, maybe it's a onetime thing?" Vincent asked, but Joel frowned. He was looking out the nearby window, checking the ground. There was a lot of Clickers scattered about, and Joel didn't believe so. Like Clicker, if there was one Bloater, there were bound to be more from his experience, unless they all exploded already, but that seemed unlikely since the place would be filled with spores.

"Gonna move further out," Joel suggested, climbing out the window and used the outer ledge to move to the adjacent building. Vincent followed behind carefully as they moved from building to building, trying to stay silent as possible from the infected below. After several more, they heard an unfamiliar growl than they used to. They entered through the window, and leaned over the side of a hole in the floor.

"Found it," Joel said softly.

"That's one ugly son of a bitc-," Vincent said but was interrupted by gunshot. He snapped his neck to the direction and cursed: "What the fuck?"

"Must be survivors, they've been coming to town, let's get rid of this guy," Joel said as he pulled out a Molotov and lit it, passing to Vincent before taking out another one and did the same. They didn't need to say anything and threw the bottle at the creature's head in tandem. The bloater roared as its flesh was set alight. After thrashing around in vain, it rammed into the side of the wall, trying to put out the flames. It managed to break through the wall, but it was still on fire.

"Hurry," Vincent said as he jumped across the gap in the second floor and ran along the wall to the window. He quickly pulled out the gun and leaned out the window, watching the Bloater. Joel did the same with his gun and they both fired at the creature's head, trying to kill it. It took some effort before the monster went down.

"One down… I think a job well done," Vincent called out as Joel nodded before heading off to find more. Gunshots could be heard in the distant as they moved through more buildings silently. The saw a group of survivors shooting Stalkers and Clickers that was charging at them, but they were greatly outnumbered by the infected.

"Should we help? More people and all for the town," Vincent said as Joel frowned. There were way too many people and not enough food. Everyone would starve soon if it was to continue. He was leaning towards no, but decided to help them to sate his guilt. With the two hardened veterans' helps, the infected was put down quickly enough.

"Thanks man," the African-American said; he was the apparent leader of the group. There were only four of them, three male and one female. Each seemed like they been through hell from their exhaustion and filthy clothes… well more filthy than Joel and Vincent's and that was saying something.

"I'm Vincent, this is Joel. You're heading to Jackson County?" Vincent asked and still was pointing his weapon at them.

"I'm Krash, this is Steve, Amanda and Nelson. Actually no, are you from there? A girl asked us the same thing as well, and we told her she was going the wrong way; damn man, she was alone too and almost shot my balls off after I asked if she want to come with us," the man said and sweated a little.

"That's one crazy girl. We told her it's dangerous that way because these strange roots appearing from the ground and crushing everything in sight, not to mention a fucking-," the only female, Amanda, called out, but was interrupted by another.

"She asked if we saw two dudes… from her description, I think she was looking for you two," Steve said, blinking a little. Nelson remained impassive as he checked around the room for supply. Unfortunately, someone already ransacked it before.

"Was she about 15 year old? Auburn hair, green eyes, freckle and scar on her eyebrow? What was her name?" Joel asked with agitation, pointing his gun at Krash. The African man raised his hand up as he was currently unarmed, but his three companions immediately returned the gesture at Joel. Vincent did the same with them. It was a standoff.

"Chill bro, she didn't give us her name, but she's exactly what you just describe, she must have gotten separated from y'all," Krash said almost casually as Joel lowered his weapon. Seeing that, Krash took the chance and pulled out his gun to point at Vincent.

"Get that gun out of my friend's face, we've been getting shot at for the whole week and I ain't losing any more people," Krash ordered. Vincent only lowered his on Joel's request.

"Alright… calm down," Vincent said as the ground below their feet rumbled a little.

"SHIT! It's here! Get down!" Nelson shouted and dropped flat on the floor. Krash and his buddy did the same while Vincent and Joel crouched instead. The last two wasn't sure what was going on as some of the rocks danced a little on the floor from the shaken earth.

"What's here?" Vincent whispered as the rumbling intensified. It was oddly familiar as he remembered back to his army days. "Is that a…"

"Shssssh!" Amanda said as Vincent saw a tank through opening in the wall. It was the latest heavily armored German tank Vincent knew, but there was a few thing out of place. The turret was tripled barrels instead of a singular as if it could rotated and fire consecutively one after another. There was a mounted heavy machine gun to one side on top of the turret. Next to that was some strange metallic cylinder. The turret was currently facing the forward position as the tank stopped just outside the building. The cylinder beeped as it detected movement. Rays of blue laser spread outward from a small slit in the middle of it. The cylinder rotated its body as the net of light scanned the building from outside.

"Get down you idiot," Krash shouted as Joel tackled Vincent while the light passed over them before returning over them again. It stopped just above Vincent and Joel and slowly descended as the veterans sweated. A clicking noise could be heard as the light quickly snapped to several Clickers coming into view.

"Hostile Detected! Infected," one of the three blond inside the tank said as the one in the middle was checking the systems.

"Fire at will then," he commanded as the final blond to his side nodded and fire. The heavy machine gun spun around and spewed dozens of bullets into the Clickers, ripping them apart as their body flung backwards, splattering on the wall from the force of the bullets.

"Shit!" Vincent muttered at the bloody mess as the tank continued onwards on its path, but immediately stopped when another gunshot could be heard. Joel widened his eyes at the realization.

"Ellie!" Joe shouted and dashed out the door as the blue light immediately detected him for a brief second. Machine guns then sprayed in his general direction as Joey jumped out harm way. He quickly rolled to the side and ran off to the gunshot he just heard as bullets shredded the walls.

"Shit! Fuck!" Vincent cursed as dust covered the room.

"Stay still…" Krash said lowly as his three friends nodded. Vincent looked up at the window and saw the tank rotated to face the building. Without much delay, the machine of war crashed through the window as its turret entered first.

"I don't think we have a choice! ROLL!" Vincent shouted as he rolled to the side. Steve and Amanda got out the way but Krash didn't make as the tank tread was on top of him. The African was closest to the window, and thousands of kilograms of metal crushed flesh and bones like it was nothing. Krash screamed in pain as half of his body was flattened. He died afterwards as the blue rays ran over the rest of his body and everyone else in the room. They were slightly shock at the pool of blood under the machine.

"Three viable targets found, order boss?"

"Stop asking, fire at will," the boss said as the weapon controller nodded. The cannon spun around while the machine gun sprayed bullets at the four remaining survivors. Nelson died in a hail of bullets immediately.

Vincent immediately jumped out the window to dodge the barrage of deadly projectiles as the main turret whacked into the other two, sending them out the window in the rotation. The tank rotated its body on the ground, smearing what remained of Krash further as it charged outside again. The three survivors ran in separate direction quickly as the blue ray scanned them. Machine gun sprayed at one as he was able to reach behind a corner and out of sight. The bullet pierced along the concrete wall, estimating his path, but Vincent was face first flat on the ground the moment he went pass the corner, evading it while dust covered his back.

"Fucking, who da the hell use a tank?" Vincent asked himself, seeing a bunch of Clickers running towards him and into the line of fire of the machine gun that passed through the wall. Their remains painted the pavement as the gunfire made short work of them.

"Target lock, distant appox 500m, 32.33% infected," a blond called as the scanner ran over the person's body in the distant.

"Thermobaric shell, impact point," the boss suggested. The triple cannon of the tank rotated so the needed tube was on top. It angled up a little, aiming at the running form of another man.

"STEVE, WATCH OUT!" Amanda shouted at her friend as the tank fired. Steve heard her and quickly jumped to the side while the shell slammed into the earth near him. Unfortunately that did him no good because a thermobaric weapon is a type of an explosive that utilized oxygen from the surrounding air to generate intense, high-temperature and pressure, blast wave. Anyone or anything nearby would be vaporized instantly. The shell ignited on impact right in front of Steve's face. His body was blast apart and turned to crispy chunks from the resulting explosion that rocked the earth.

Dozens of Runner, Stalkers and Clickers heard the loud boom and felt the heat passing through them. They immediately ran towards it as the blue net laser scanned them over.

"Multiple Hostiles Detected! 100% Infected! Secondary Overheated, Inactive!"

"Let it cool, use shrapnel shell, wide arc," the boss ordered as the weapon specialist saluted. The tank's turret rotated as all the infected were running towards the tank without much thought. The monsters couldn't think anyway and only acted on instinct. The tri-cannon rotated again to get correct barrel on top and fired. The Shrapnel Shell exploded a few seconds after it came out of the canon, spraying out hundreds of small ball in a wide arc. Each metal ball that flew into the infected was about a bullet width, but that would mean the tank just shot the hell out of them as they were showered in the stuff. Only a few infected managed to make it to the tank as they smashing against the tank's front armor.

"Never understood how these things can defeat the military, I mean common, as if they could," the boss said as he pressed down on the accelerator. The tank drove forwards, pushing all the infected below it as the tread crushed their body and skulls effortlessly. It rotated around and did a second run to make sure before facing Amanda.

The blue light scanned her over as she put her hands up, sobbing and trying to surrender. The machine gun clicked as it finished cooling and rotated around, pointing at her as she trembled, looking down at the barrel. Thunderous sounds of gunfire filled the air before the tank moving onwards to find the other two.

Ellie was having trouble fighting against the Clickers that was pouring through the doorway. However, a huge boom was heard and gave her some breathing space as most of them ran towards that. A few behind stopped momentarily before charging at her again. Ellie quickly raised her pistol at them but it was empty. Before she could do anything, one tackled her to the ground. She quickly held its head with both hands as it tried to bite down on her. Ellie wasn't afraid of being infected, but these things could tear through her neck and she would bleed to death.

"Fucking get off me!" Ellie yelled as she stabbed it in the neck multiple times with her knife before it stopped moving and fell to the side. Ellie's heart nearly jumped out of her body as another Clicker came into view. It lurched at her but got shot several times from the side.

"Ellie!" Joel called out as the girl struggled to get up from the deadweight on top of her. Joel helped her up.

"Are you okay?" Joel asked as Ellie kicked and punched him more than once. Joel grunted in pain.

"You left me behind, you fucker! I hate you! I hate you! I hate…you! I was so scared…" Ellie shouted then her voice ragged a little. She then burrowed her head into his chest.

"It's okay, I'm sorry, I'm here baby girl," Joel apologized as he sighed. He should have known that Ellie would try to escape and run after him. She was that sort of person, but he was hoping that his brother would stop her. He would have held her a little longer but the rumbling on the ground forced him to pull her to the side and out of sight.

"What the fuck is that?" Ellie asked, seeing the bloody machine from the window.

"A tank, stay close and away from the window," Joel said as the tank stopped at the spot they were hiding.

"Seriously? A working one?" Ellie asked lowly with a hint of excitement before the said tank crashed through the wall, passing them by and to the adjacent room. The duo quickly navigated away from it from behind as it was rotating in the room, scanning the area. Ellie accidently knocked a bottle as it rolled across the floor. Joel tried to stop the object but it fell to the side and shattered. The blue rays immediately snapped onto them before a hail of bullets crash through the room.

Joel grabbed Ellie and jumped through the hole in the floor and fell down to the basement. He rolled when landed before grunting as his back smacked against the broken concrete. The tank rammed through the room above and stopped at the edges as its detector noted the hole in the floor.

"GARH…" Joel groaned, pushing Ellie up and told her to run.

"Get up Joel! We're doing this together! You promise!" Ellie called out, trying to pull him up. Joel grunted and twisted his body a little, trying to ignore the pain before joining her. They quickly ran through the basement to the exit. Ellie was about to push it open so they could escape the room.

"Wait…" Joel said, stopping Ellie from opening it. If the tank couldn't get down, they would be save here. They wait for a few seconds before gunfire started.

"Joel… the ceiling," Ellie said, pointing up at it as numerous small holes were made along the edges from the machine gun. The tank was cutting through the floor, allowing what remained of the roof to fall on top of them.

"Go!Go!Go!" Joel shouted. He kicked the basement door open, allowing them passage to the courtyard as the celling finally collapsed behind. They immediately entered prone position and rolled to the side to hide behind a half destroyed fence while seeing the tank reversed out of the building.

"How do we kill that thing?" Ellie asked.

"We can't, just avoid it," Joel answer, huffing as he watched the tank fired into the building. The room was showered with hundreds of metal ball, making many holes in the wall. The cannon then rotated and fired another shell. This time the room exploded in flames, and the created shockwave pushed both Ellie and Joel away. They collapsed, turning around just in time to see dirt and debris flew all over them. The dust covered their face as their eyes widened at the sight. The building they were in previously crumpled and collapsing from the damage to its foundation.

"Tell me again Joel, how do we avoid that?" Ellie changed her question. She was somewhat frightened now as Joel quickly got up and dragged her away. His heart dropped as the blue rays scanned over them.

"Shit, RUN! Common," Joel commanded, pulling Ellie with him.

The tank rotated and rushed at them through the half destroyed concrete fence. Joel and Ellie run down the street as the tank emerged out of the corner behind them. The cylinder on top tried to scan them but the duo quickly entered the building to the side before it could.

"Fast bunch aren't they…" the boss said with a frown and ordered: "Tear down that building!"

The tank immediate sent a barrage at the wall, trying to destroy the foundation of another building as more Clickers and Walkers around the area ran towards the noise. The heavy mounted machine gun made short work of them while the turret continued its task. The building tilted to one end as the duo inside tried to run through the upper level.

"JOEL!" Ellie shouted as she slipped on the incline and slid down the floor. Joel immediate grabbed her and joined her in the descent. Their bodies slammed into the glass window and came back outside onto the road again. The tank immediately stopped as the blue ray ran over them.

"99.99% Infected… that's not possible is it?" the blond asked, reading the scanner while raising an eyebrow. It wasn't possible to get that number, yet it did.

"If they infected then fire at will," the boss ordered as the turret rotated to them. Joel pulled Ellie to him as they looked up. The foundation of the building gave way in that moment. Joel dashed to the side with Ellie in his arms as the building fell on top of the tank just second before it fired a Thermobaric round from the cannon. The incinerating shell flew through the descending debris towards the duo but its tip impacted against a falling chair and exploded. Thermal blast sphere was expanding outwards, sending the duo forwards as they rolled onto the asphalt, torn up their skin a little.

Their vision became hazy as the world around them seemed to slow down while their mouth took in short gasps of air rapidly. They pulled themselves up, seeing the piles of debris that once made up the superstructure. The tank was buried under the burning ruin.

"FUCKING TAKE THAT!" Ellie shouted after coughing a little. Unfortunately, her joy died down as a rumpling sound could be heard. Smashed concrete and bricks fell to the side of the piles as if something was pulling itself out from below.

"Ellie! Let's go! Hurry!" Joel pulled her as she was shocked when the heap sagged a little before the tank climbed over it. The machine had reversed out of its tomb and now approaching them ominously over the artificial hill, passing through the curtain of flames. Its left the wall of fire behind as its body was scorched like something that just came out of hell. Ellie gulped as she ran away with Joel.

The teenage girl was about turn to the right alley down the road, but Joel grabbed her to go left as the other was a dead end. Unfortunately, he saw the tank was about to fire and pushed her right as shrapnel flew pass their previous position.

"A door!" Ellie called out as Joel grabbed her and pushed her to the ground while machine gun's bullet sailed ahead, blasting the door along with the wall frame to pieces. The heavy machine gun stopped and tilted down to lower the angle. It was about to fire but stream of bullets rammed into it, causing damage.

"You like that mother fucker?" Vincent shouted, reloading and start shooting again from the side. The machine gun turned to it attacker clumsily as it was blasted again and again. One lucky bullet managed to lodge itself into the rotating mechanism and effectively locked the heavy armament in place. Vincent threw a Molotov onto the tank, setting it on fire again.

"Take that fucker!" Vincent stuck both of his fingers up before the tank compromised and turned its body around, allowing the mounted gun on top to fire at him.

"Shit!" Vincent shouted; ran to the side as the tank rushed towards him. He jumped through the window to avoid it and cut himself more than little. Ellie and Joel, on other hand, took the opportunity and head into the door that the machine generously opened for them.

"We should help him!" Ellie called out, hearing the gun fire nearby.

"We can't help him! We need to get out of here!" Joel claimed and told her to follow him through the corridor. The machine gun continuously sprayed through the building, trying to kill Vincent as the turning mechanisms sent out spark, trying to repositioning itself. With one more attempt, the mechanisms broke and the machine gun stopped working completely.

"We're lost the Secondary, boss!"

"Damn… oh well, let's run them down!" The boss said and increased the speed of the war machine, making it pass through the wall as the glass, concrete and metal gave way to the titan.

"Load Shrapnel Shells! Keep firing!"

Countless of metal ball crashed through several walls as Ellie screamed, holding her ears in prone position while Joel covered her with his body. Vincent was sliding across the floor in a different room as everything within it flew around from the hail of bullets. Joel timed each barrage as it took a few second to reload the shell.

"We can't say here! Come on!" Joel said as he felt the rumbling on the ground, indicating the darn thing was moving again. He quickly pulled Ellie to him as they went through the nearest door. They met Vincent just in time for more shrapnel came from the wall at a downward angle. Vincent cursed as his body was hit several times. He collapsed to the ground and was bleeding out.

"Go!" Vincent called out and pulled out a Molotov as the tank emerged through the wall. He threw it at the inferno machine as it went into the cannon barrel before exploding, giving the war machine a pseudo flamethrower that torched Vincent without actually firing. He screamed in pain before expiring while holding Ellie in his arm, covering her eyes from the horror. The tank froze at the sight, scanning over the body.

"Don't let this chance be wasted!" Joel said, pushing Ellie up the stair as he held his gut with one hand. The limb was dyed red quickly as he huffed with exhaustion, feeling light headed. Before he could lie down, the staircase collapsed from the numerous wounds and Ellie fell outside the building through the small opening in the wall. Joel mustered his remaining strength and jumped out after her. He pushed her along as she noticed the wound on his body.

"You're bleeding, Joel!"

"I know… go, run!" Joel collapsed on his knee. He was tired. Exhausted.

"I can't fucking leave you here, we said we do this together!" Ellie protested. Before Joel could retort, the wall behind them sprayed outwards as a triple-turret emerged from beyond. It was followed by thousands kilogram of death.

"GO!" Joel roared pushing Ellie away. She staggered backward, looking at the persons he came to love like a father. Behind him was the deadly weapon, moving ever closer. She rubbed the tears off her eyes and ran like she never ran before. Joel turned around at the war machine and fell back on his back. He pulled out his handgun and fire at the tank's armor, emptying his clip. It wasn't pointless. He was distracting it to give Ellie enough time to get away. His wound was fatal, and he would die soon anyway.

However, the girl stopped around the corner and continued to cry. She was waiting for the sound that would claim Joel's life.

"Goodbye, baby girl," Joel said, closing his eyes, waiting for the tank to fire so he would join his wife and daughter in the afterlife.

The tank lowered its turret at the man as the tri-cannon rotated, readying to fire at him as blue light swept over the bleeding man's body.

"0%. He's clean, boss," the blond called out as the boss nodded then gave a pause.

"Must be the girl then, why hadn't she turned yet? 99.99%? You sure it's not broken?" the boss asked afterwards.

"I'm sure!"

Joel wondered why the moment of death took so long and opened his eyes slowly. The tank hummed as it rotated its body to the side and away from the man. Joel blinked and was paralyzed for a bit what just happened. He was ready, and it been hunting them for a while now, but it didn't bother to finish the job. He broke out of his thought as the turret fired at the wall from beyond once it detected something. The explosion was followed by Ellie's scream as bricks and concrete sprayed outwards, piercing her back.

"It's hunting infected… SHIT! ELLIE!" Joel mumbled then roared, mustering all his strength and running up the tank's from behind. The turrent locked onto Ellie as she limping away from the injury. "ELLIE!" Joel roared again as he took out a crowbar from his side and smashed the visor of the machine. The tank's turret swung left and right, trying to knock him off. With one more powerful swung with all he could muster, the camera system was destroyed.

"We lost visual, boss," the blond said as the boss blinked. Without the camera, the tank swayed to the side, carving out the brick walls with its body in the process before returning back to the road.

"Damn, switch to infrared then!" The boss ordered as the turret stopped spinning around to get off the man. It quickly pointed at Ellie, who was limping but she took enough strength to turn around. She was bleeding pretty badly as Joel looked at her. Their gaze met.

"Let's make it painless," the boss said as the weapon controller loaded thermobaric shell.

"Joel," Ellie said, dropping to her knee from her grievous wounds.

"Ellie! Get away!" Joel called out, but she couldn't move. He quickly grabbed one of the bricks on top of the tank and jumped onto the tri-cannon pole. He threw it down the barrel as it went all the way to end.

The tank fire the loaded Thermobaric Shell, but the shell impacted against the brick and exploded inside the turret right in front of the trio blond. Flames erupted from the cannon end as the cockpit exploded in an inferno. Two of the blond dispelled in white smoke, and the third one was on fire as powerful pressure ripped the tank apart. It also sent Joel flying forwards to Ellie as he scrapped across the ground.

The two crawled to each other, leaving a trail of blood behind.

"Joel! You're okay?" Ellie asked, looking at the wreckage of the war machine.

"I don't think so," Joel mumbled weakly, turning around as he held his abdomen in pain. He looked at the burning ruin with the girl before both of their eyes widen in fear. Someone was climbing out of that inferno, and that person was on fire as he stood up on top the wreckage. With a wave of his hand, the fire died down as a strong gust of wind blasted it away, revealing the person completely naked and hairless. His flesh was burnt off mostly, as pieces of it fell to the side.

Naruto cracked his neck a little and fidgeting his fingers. He was in a lot of pain as he was burnt alive. It was like those witch hunt again, and he couldn't help but chuckled at the strength of these two.

"How can he fucking be alive and moving," Ellie called out. The pilot should have been dead by all account. Then more shocking thing happened as the person's flesh quickly regenerated, covering his body again, his hair grew rapidly and turned blond. His clothes reformed and covered him over. He jumped off the wreckage, looking completely uninjured.

He was walking towards the duo, and each of his steps filled their heart with dread. He wasn't human. Their minds had made that clear enough.

"Ellie, gun," Joel asked but Ellie fired at the blond instead. Each bullet impacted against him, but they didn't even slow him down one bit. He stopped after she had emptied her clip into him, and now was standing before her, looking down with his blue eyes. A smile formed on his face as the ground rumpled, and roots erupted from below through stones and concrete. Joel couldn't muttered a single word at how nature reclaiming the lands while Ellie kept trying to shoot the blond with her useless weapon.

Naruto checked out the teenage girl's face as she glared at him.

"Interesting… is your mother Anna? You looked a lot like her," Naruto asked while roots surrounded three of them, turning day into night with numerous wooden tendrils.

Joel blacked out from the blood loss and didn't hear any of Ellie's screams that followed.

* * *

><p><strong>Author Note:<strong>

There we go; probably two or three more chapters to go. It was intended to be one-shot, but I expanded it a little to give some context of what's happening. Hope you enjoyed Ellie and Joel versus Naruto (who was using a tank). Yeah, zombie apocalypse would never happen when people have these things and armed to the teeth. I mean 90% of the American has guns in their home! If zombie apocalypse occurred, it would die down very quickly as their bodies will be riddled with bullets.

**_Comment, criticisms and review are welcome!  
>Flaming and insults will be ignored!<em>**


	3. Fruit of Knowledge

**Garden of Eden: Naruto x Last of Us Crossover**

**Disclaimer: **This story is fiction, all the characters, names and places belong to their respective owners.

"Talking"  
>'Thoughts'<br>Names of Things  
>"<span>Memory Lane<span>"  
>"<strong>Demonic Voice<strong>"  
>(Thought Bubbles)<br>**_Important Stuff_**

This story is almost done! Only one more chapter after this to wrap everything up! I would make it longer if there were more interest, but since there isn't, I will complete it quickly enough.

* * *

><p><strong>=[Garden of Eden]=<br>Fruit of Knowledge**

"It's time," the blond said, sitting by the window in a hospital room, looking outside with a rather blank expression. No one knew when he had arrived, and no one knew who he was except for a single person in the whole building. The auburn-haired woman turned to face him before tears filled her green eyes. It was time.

"Can I just…" she asked but was cut off with a wave of hand from the blond.

"Are you trying to bargain again? Stubborn girl… It was fun, but I'm not interested anymore so don't bother. You played and you lost, and now you have to pay the price. It's that simple," the blond said without paying her attention. He was still watching the area outside the window while she cleared the liquids from her face. Silence filled the room between the two before the blond sighed.

"It's your last day, make the most of it," he said then disappeared in a crimson flash, leaving her alone again. She wept a little before taking out a piece of paper and pen. She didn't like children, especially infants, and becoming a mother was not what she expected. Still, she loved her newborn daughter as droplet of water fell from her eyes, dampening the paper. She would have to leave this world and away from her daughter.

_Ellie,_

_I'm going to share a secret with you, I'm not a big fan of kids and I hate babies. And yet... I'm staring at you and I'm just awestruck._

_You're not even a day old and holding you is the most incredible thing I've done in my life - a life that is about to get cut a little short._

_Marlene will look after you. There's no one in this world I trust more than her. When the time comes she'll tell you all about me. Don't give her too much of a hard time. Try not to be as stubborn as me.  
>I'm not going to lie, this is a pretty messed up world. It won't be easy. The thing you always have to remember is that, life is worth living! Find your purpose and fight for it.<em>

_I see so much strength in you. I know you'll turn out to be the woman you're meant to be._

_Forever... your loving mother._

_Anna, make me proud, Ellie!_

**XxXxX**

Not again. Ellie thought as she was being grabbed in inappropriately places by the numerous wooden tendrils. Some of it went underneath her clothes and she had this horrible image of being rape by tentacles before one wrapped around her neck as if it was trying to suffocate. Ellie didn't know what to think then other than screamed at the top of her lung, trying to break out of it. However, when she did, she felt the binding became weaker as if it had heard her and hesitated. The roots paused for a moment before another voice spoke up, forcing it to continue to choke her.

The last image entered her mind was Joel as she struggled to stay conscious, gasping for air. The man was there by her side, bleeding to death as the blond kneel over his body. She feared for his life as the blond placed his hand on Joel's body. Ellie didn't know what happened after that as she blacked out due to lack of oxygen.

Naruto checked the man's wounds carefully as the roots wrapped around the girl's body and placed her down on the ground gently. That was odd. Anyway, this man managed to take out the tank Naruto was in to save the teenage girl. That was no easy feat, or he was just lucky enough that Naruto used an impact point thermobaric shell in that moment. If it was any other ammo, it would not have work like that. However, it did and Naruto will give credit to where it's due. He looked around the darkness and noticed the root was behaving strangely. It started the moment the girl's scream. He placed his hand on one tendril as it throbbed under his palm.

"What are you doing?" Naruto asked, feeling the pulse. The tendril shifted and became agitated for some reason as it conversed with the blond mentally.

"Really? hmmm… okay," Naruto said before removing his palm from the tendril as it retreated back. More roots came out of the ground, pressing and weaving into each other, forming a complicated building.

**XxXxX**

Ellie remembered back to when she was almost raped by one of the Hunters. What was his name? Dave? Dove? She couldn't resurface it in her mind besides the traumatic experience she felt when her back was pressed against the floor by that cannibal. The hebephile would penetrate her first; calling her "special" while having his fun, and then hacked her into tiny piece as implied by his words he used. She didn't accept that ending and fought with her all to break out of his grip and killed the man in rage just before Joel came to her rescue. It was a horrible experience.

"Joel!" Ellie screamed as her body was pressed against the floor again. This time with roots wrapped around all her limbs; wrists and ankles. She couldn't break out of them at all as the blond looked down at her from his stand up position. Her back pulsed in pain as many foreign objects was still embedded in it.

She turned her head around to the side and looked up at the blond looking at her body. Ellie then glanced around the room, seeing that she was in some sort of cube with equal six wooden sides. There was no window or door… How did they get in if there was no door? The only light source in the room was these strange floating balls of fire. There was glowing core in the center with numerous fiery lines, wrapping around it like a cage, forming the surface of the sphere. Ellie never seen such thing before, nor did she seen anyone who could reformed his body after walking out an exploded tank.

Was this person human? Was he the devil?

With a snap of his fingers, Ellie felt she was raised from the ground… no, that wasn't it. The ground was being raised with her on it. It formed a table while her limb was still wrapped around by roots in each corner. She was lying with front pressed to the table as the blond lowered his head a bit and looked into her green eyes. A chuckle escaped his lip as Ellie growled, still trying her best to break out of the bondage and stabs the fucker with whatever she could find.

Naruto returned to upright position as Chakra flowed through his index finger. He pressed it on the back of the girl's neck and slid down her body as it slashed through her top without breaking her skin. Her pant was next on the list along with everything else afterwards.

Revulsion. That was what Ellie felt as her clothes was sliced up to revealed her skin. She couldn't see what he was doing exactly, but she felt the clothes were no longer covered her back. With a pull, he removed all her clothes from under her, and she was completely naked, feeling like a lamb on an butcher table.

"Stop… STOP IT YOU FUCKER! Let me go!" Ellie swore loudly, trying to twist her body, but the root pulled her limb outwards every time she tried. It hurts and she was screaming when that happened. The blond ignored her cries and her insults as he placed his palm on her back, sliding down over her rear and leg, feeling her up a little. Tears filled the teenager eyes, dropping down onto the table as horrible images filled her mind. She was about to get rape and she couldn't do anything about it.

"Joel," Ellie mumbled. She hoped Joel would burst through the wall any moment now and blew this fucker head off. Unfortunately, no one came. Moment later, the blond's hand stopped caressing her after sliding up her body again. It stopped at a piece of metal protruding from her back. With one swift motion, he pulled the piece of shrapnel out as Ellie shrieked in pain. He did it again with another, then another. Ellie screamed at each one as blood flowed down her back.

A click sound escaped his mouth after he was done and felt there was nothing underneath her skin. He then placed his hand on her back, and Ellie felt a burning sensation throughout her body. It was painful at first before numbness set in. She then felt his hand across her back again, clearing away the blood.

"That's out of the way, let's checks your front," he said as roots removed itself from her limbs. Ellie clenched her fist as he turned her over. She immediately clocked him in the jaw with all her strength, but that was a mistake. The teenager winced on reflex before holding her fist in pain. It was as if she had punched a solid brick wall. Naruto rubbed his jaw a little, feeling the blow. It probably hurt her more than it hurt him in that attempt.

Didn't want to be punch again, Naruto grabbed the girls hand and pressed them together, slamming it on the table as she screamed. She then tried to knee or kicks him this time.

"Stop that," Naruto said, as roots came out of the table and wrapped her legs together along with both of her hands. He let go of his hand as it was no longer needed to hold her in place, but Ellie jerked up and bit his forearm. Blood filled spilt out the side of her jaw, but Naruto didn't scream or yell, or do anything really. He just stood there, allowing the girl to do that.

His eyes scanned over her naked form, seeing the ripe figure she now had. Still, she was just a child to most people. _Most_ was the objective word. Who really know how many depraved lunatic out there in this horrid world that couldn't get laid?

"Let go," Naruto ordered, but Ellie increased her jaw's strength.

"I said let it go," Naruto repeated, but Ellie didn't complied. The blond narrowed his eyes and pushed his forearm downward and slammed Ellie's head to the table forcing her to open her jaw as she felt the shock to her brain. She had no choice but to let him go. Naruto checked his injury with a frown. Ellie mumbled something with her mouth close as Naruto leaned in closer, trying to make it out. The girl spat in his face with his own blood as he blinked.

Naruto used one hand to swipe it away. "Do that again and I will slap you," Naruto threatened before returning a smile to his face.

"Where are my manner, I'm Naruto Uzumaki, you're _special_, so what's your name?" Naruto asked. Ellie hated that word and cursed something under her breath. Naruto raised an eyebrow as he couldn't make out the word.

"What was that?" Naruto asked, leaning closer. His ear got bitten this time as he jerked back. He rubbed it a little before it healed. Ellie spat out the flesh as Naruto's eyes twitched. He backslapped the girl while holding back his natural strength. It wasn't enhanced by Chakra either as that could flatten mountains, let alone someone like her. Still, it was powerful enough to dislocate her jaw. Ellie was not new to pain, but this was something else. Before she could do anything, a hand grabbed her head and another fixed the dislocation before that same one glowed a little. Ellie couldn't see it, but felt if her pain went away. Naruto moved his face closer to her after the healing.

"I told you… do that again and I will slap you, now, answer me, what's your name?"

Ellie didn't say anything. He moved his other hand to her naked chest, pressing down on it along with her cups. Ellie gasped immediately. She couldn't breathe at all as her lung felt like it was being pressed down by some strange force inside her body. It was much more painful than her rib cage cracking under his strength.

"S..top…" Ellie hyperventilated, but felt that she was continuously short of breaths as if the air could not fill her lung at all.

"What's your name?" Naruto asked again and increased his chakra through the girl's body, inhibiting her breathing by interfering with her vital organs. It would give the feeling of suffocation, but she could never die from it.

"Ell… ELLIE!" She shouted after a while and Naruto removed his hand from her chest. Ellie huffed rapidly as the awful feeling went away.

"See… that wasn't so hard," Naruto said with a smile. "Ignore my question again and I could torture you in ways you can never imagine. You think suffocating was bad? Ever imagine what it felt like to drown endlessly? Or being burn alive?"

Ellie shook her head vigorously.

"Now, Ellie, what's the name of the guy with you?" Naruto asked, seeing the fright in the girl's eyes.

"Joel," Ellie answered almost immediately before biting down her lips. She shouldn't have told him that, but she didn't want to be torture anymore. Naruto chuckled a little at the girl's 'eagerness' to answer his question. Ellie glared angrily at the blond again while trying to move her arms and legs. Naruto saw it then examined the rest of the girl body while she was protesting.

"I would ask you more questions, but you need to make yourself presentable… you need a bath," Naruto said, looking down at the teenage body with some amusements. It was stained with filth and blood as he walked his fingers over her body and across her chest playfully. Ellie growled, jerking her body to remove it as Naruto snickered a little.

"Heh, alright, joke's over, as if I would lust over you," Naruto said and clapped his hands together. The roots removed itself as Ellie curled up in to a ball to cover her private. She was sobbing as well as the wooden wall rippled a little. Naruto noticed it before forming a smile and turned back to the girl.

"Do you want me to carry you or you can walk on your own?" Naruto asked with all seriousness. Ellie didn't reply and Naruto simply shrugged. He walked to one wall as it opened up to form a door to let him through. The auburn-haired girl blinked. She had no idea how that was possible. Also, he just left her there.

Alone in the room, she dropped down from the table as the orb of fire floated around her to light the way. Ellie outstretched her hand at one, trying to touch one.

"Don't touch them… unless you want to lose your finger horribly," Naruto called out before she could. He stuck his head in the door way. He then lowered his eyes down her body as Ellie immediately curled up into the ball again to cover herself. Naruto grinned a little. It was fun teasing the girl.

Naruto disappeared from the corridor way again. It took a minute or so for Ellie to peek out. He was nowhere in sight. There was only one door down the corridor as the orb of fire drifted towards it. Ellie followed them and checked the room. It was a big chamber with vines and plants adorning the wall. In the center was a pool, filled with water. More orbs of fire floating around above playfully.

Ellie was dehydrated so she moved closer to the edge while looking around to see where the blond had gone. She couldn't find him so she leaned over the side and took a sip to quench her thirst. It was fresh and cool water, but that was impossible. No water was this fresh. Ellie didn't ponder much before a foot pressed on her back and pushed her forwards. She went face first into the pool.

"Stop idling," Naruto stated before seeing the girl splashing around in the water after managing to stick her head up.

"Help… I can't swim!" Ellie called for help as the blond just stood there, raising an eyebrow at her. The splashes inside the pool became more crazed as she struggled to stay afloat. Ellie was seriously drowning as she never learnt how to swim before.

"Stop messing around, have you try standing up?" Naruto asked several times with a normal tone before Ellie finally heard him. She stood up and realized the depth of the pool only covered up to her neck. Her cheek glowed reddish with embarrassment before realizing the blond was watching the whole thing.

"When was the last time you taken a bath?" Naruto asked but Ellie didn't answer. She just glared at him, and Naruto stared back at her.

"Where's Joel?" Ellie asked after a few minutes of staring contest.

"Safe… for now, I could kill him anytime I wanted, in fact he would have died if I did nothing," Naruto said with a smile then asked: "Do you want me to kill him?"

"WHAT? FUCK NO! Why would I want to kill him! He's my best friend!" Ellie called back in shock.

"I see… okay, I will torture him for a bit," Naruto declared, jogging out the door. Ellie blinked and got out of the pool quickly to chase after the blond, but she jerked backwards and fell on her ass when the blond stuck his head back in the doorway right in front of her.

"FUCK!" Ellie cursed.

A grin formed on his face as he chuckled at her attempt to save her friend. If he wanted to kill Joel, the man would be dead already. Ellie blinked before realizing she was completely naked in front of him again and curled up to cover herself again.

"FUCKER!" Ellie insulted. Naruto's eyes twitched a little at the name calling. He didn't like people calling him names unless it was the true.

"I already saw everything when I fondle you so why bother hiding it?" Naruto asked cheekily.

"You asshole!" Ellie roared back sheepishly.

"Heh, I know I am. Anyway, clean up and make yourself presentable! I will check on you soon, and if you still look like shit, I will clean you myself...you would not enjoy it, but I know I will," Naruto hinted with a grin before turning around and walking back out the doorway. The roots covered it and reformed the wall again just before Ellie got up and ran towards it, but it didn't open for her. She slammed her fist into it, but that did nothing other than injuring herself.

"Let me out you fucker!" Ellie shouted at the wall and looked around for something to smash. There was nothing other than flowers, vines and floating lights that she not supposed to touch. Ellie ignored the blond warning and tried to touch them, but when she moved closer to them, they moved away and out of her reach.

"Fucker," Ellie said as she returned to pool and just stood in there. "Make myself presentable? Fuck you… he will come back and clean me himself… shit," Ellie mumbled before seeing a sponge floating on top of the surface. It wasn't there before as she narrowed her eyes at it. She took it and rubbed across her body, clearing the dirt and blood away. She realized her back wasn't bleeding anymore; not even a scar was left there as she ran her fingers over it. Ellie wondered about that for a second before rubbed the soft sponge over her asset. It was tiny, almost flat even. She wondered if she ever grew there at all.

"Fuck! Why did I thought about that, I'm going to stab his dick if he tries," Ellie said and cleaned her bottom. She walked around in the pool a little after that, checking the flowers as it filled the room with aroma. She was also wondering what to do now. The wooden wall to one side opened up again as the same blond passed through and she jumped back into the pool. He looked down at Ellie from his position with a folded towel in one hand.

"Done? Dry yourself," Naruto said as Ellie growled a little, trying to hid her body again underwater. Ellie didn't know that the visual distortion by the water did nothing to stop him from seeing everything. Naruto mentally chuckled as he moved closer to the edge with an outstretched hand.

"… or I can clean you if you preferred, I don't mind at all," Naruto added as Ellie immediately jumped up from the pool to grabbed it, but the towel immediate fell into the water and became useless.

"Really? You should get out first and-," Naruto restated.

"Fuck off, you pervert," Ellie insulted as Naruto's eyes twitched a little before becoming rings. He quickly outstretched his hand and Ellie screamed as her body pulled towards him. He held her at a choke hold as she thrashed her leg about, trying to find solid ground below. He was taller than her and effortlessly lifted her above his head.

"What did you say? Do I look like a pervert?" Naruto asked with some annoyance then realize from her perspective he appeared to be one. Ellie was frightened at the unnatural eyes. For a second, she thought she actually missed the natural oceanic blue of his. As if he heard her wish, it changed back to normal as Naruto dropped her down into the pool. He walked out the door, shaking his head a little and came back half a minute later.

"Don't make me say it again, get out and dry yourself," Naruto said deeply as he dropped a pile of towels onto the floor. Ellie was coughing out the liquid she just inhaled when she was drop back into the pool abruptly. She was incredibly frightened at the blond and didn't move from her spot at all. She didn't understand what she did to anger him. He wasn't joking around anymore as he scrutinized her a little more. With a nod, he left the room. The wall closed up, removing the doorway as usual.

After a few more minutes Ellie got out and dried herself. After that, she covered her body in the towels and wondered when he would be back; hopefully never, but then she would be stuck in here. The door opened up again and Naruto walked back in with a bundle of clothes.

"I think these are your size since I used your old one as template," Naruto said as the floor rose up, forming a pedestal. The liquid on it was pushed to the side, leaving dry wood behind. Ellie's eyes widen at that. She didn't know what to make of it as she never seen something like it before. The blond placed her clothes on top before leaving again. Ellie eyed the door as it didn't close this time. She quickly dropped the towel and dressed herself, using the pedestal as cover while leering that the door to make sure the blond didn't peak. After that was done, Ellie looked around and waited, but he didn't come back through.

Time went by as she waited.

"What the fuck…" Ellie muttered as she walked out the door. The corridor was dark as there was no light. However, the fiery orbs in the room followed her. It floated front and behind but just out of her reach. She walked down the corridor as there was another door. It wasn't the same one as the last room so Ellie peeked in and saw a long table with more glowing orbs above. The blond was sitting at one end.

"Hungry?" He asked as Ellie's eyes narrowed.

"Where's Joel?"

"Asking me again won't change my answer. Are you hungry?" Naruto queried, raising an eyebrow.

"Fuck no, let me out of here you sicko!"

"I will, but not now. If you're not hungry, then come back when you do. You can rest over there since we have all the time in the world," Naruto said, pointed at the wall behind Ellie, except it wasn't a wall anymore. There was a door in it now. Inside was a small bed, a chair, table, mounted mirror and some girlish stuff at the end. Ellie looked over her shoulder and saw the blond closed his eyes and seemingly snoozing.

Ellie walked to the bed as the door closed up behind her. She panicked and walked to it again as it opened up once more. She exhaled a breath of relief before stiffened at Naruto, who was looking back at her with a grin. She walked back to the bed again as the door closed again.

"What the hell did he want with me?" Ellie asked herself as she looked into the mirror. She blinked, realizing how much different now that she had a nice clean bath. Many of her scars were gone as she pulled up her sleeve and realized the infected bitten mark was gone too. She didn't realize when it disappeared.

"Great I'm dead? And I'm in some sort of dream world," Ellie said before pitching herself hard.

"Owww! Not a dream…"

Ellie sighed as she sat down on the seat in front of the mirror. There was a brush on the table as she used it to comb her hair a little. She would eventually starve soon and had no choice but to go back out. Ellie still wondered what happened to Joel. Maybe he was held up in another room with no way out.

Meanwhile, Naruto was yawning a little.

"She's really looked like you, why didn't you tell me?" Naruto asked as several tendrils emerged out the wall and wrapped the blond's body up. He tapped the root a little. "Right, I forgot…"

**XxXxX**

"Where's Joel?" Ellie asked again as the meal was lay out before her. She hadn't touched it at all even though her stomach was growling. The almost fifteen-year-old girl had never seen such luxurious meal before in her life and she was slightly surprise by it all. Naruto sighed at the question and folded his hands. There was no food in front of him as he wasn't hungry. Consuming anything only gave him the pleasure of taste. It provided him no benefit after that.

Ellie asked again forcing Naruto to roll his eyes a little. It was as if the girl couldn't live without the man.

"I said, asking me again won't change my answers. He's fine and how long he's remained so is up to you," Naruto answered and pointed at the plate before Ellie, "and before we do anything else, I know you're starving so eat first."

Ellie couldn't argue with that as she dug in her plate. After finishing it, the branches emerged from the wall, moving closer to her. It grew an apple on it.

"Desert, have some, it's good," Naruto said with a smile as Ellie poked it hesitantly. She didn't know how it was possible but she was in awe.

"If you don't like apple, I'm sure it can make any other fruit you want," Naruto said as several other type grew on the branch. Ellie picked a grape from it, rolling it between her fingers before consuming it. It was very juicy like she never taste it before. She quickly consumed a few more in haste as Naruto chuckled. Ellie snapped out of her gluttony after a few more mouthfuls. She realized the blond hadn't eaten anything at all through the whole time even though branches grew fruits all over both sides of the table.

"Why don't you eat?"

"Hmmm… maybe later when you fill out more," Naruto said with a devious smile. Ellie spat out the stuff in her mouth and was about to stand up, but roots wrapped her arms and legs, forcing her back to the chair. She thought he was a cannibal of sort for a moment but that didn't make much sense. He could grow all these food if he wishes unless… it was some sort of twisted game. Ellie became more agitated as her mind raced through all the scenarios that result in her death.

"Calm down, I'm not going to eat you, tsk… although I could, but…"Naruto pulled an apple from the tree and rubbed it against his face. He placed it on the table. "… it would give me very little pleasure," Naruto finished and slashed his hand down at the fruit. The apple split apart in halves. He picked up one and took a bite.

"Have you never thought why you are completely infected but still retained your mind?" Naruto asked, sitting at one end of the table.

"Because I'm immune?" Ellie replied hesitantly. She was sitting at the other end as it was the furthest distance. She was frightened of him and wanted to know what happened to her friend Joel.

A pregnant silence occurred before a chuckle was noted from the blond. "Musume, no one is immune, the reason you still retained your mind is because you are not entirely human," he finally said. She wondered what he just called her. It sounded Japanese.

"What does that mean?"

"Huh?" Naruto asked.

"Musume, what does it mean you asshole!"

"It meant my daughter, Ellie," Naruto said as the girl widened her eyes.

"SHUT THE FUCK UP! I'M NOT YOUR DAUGHTER!" Ellie exclaimed angrily as Naruto chewed and swallowed.

"Uh huh, denying it won't make it any less true. I am your father whether you like it or not, and the reason the virus couldn't completely turn you into those crazy things is because it only affect your human side, your other halve is… well… different," Naruto said, looking around him. The branches shook a little at his gaze.

"RIGHT, LET ME GO ALREADY AND WHERE'S JOEL!?" Ellie shouted, trying to break out of the binding. She wouldn't want to listen to this crap. Naruto remained impassive as he bit down the other halve of the apple, watching the girl's expression.

"It's the truth. Your mother, Anna, told me. It's amazing that she remembered some stuff from her old life," Naruto stated dryly.

"Old life? What do you mean? Where's my mum? What did you do to her?" Ellie asked exasperatedly. She thought her mum had died on the day she was born, but from what the blond implied, her mother was still alive. Naruto finished the apple and looked around the room with a smile.

"She's been around you the whole time… didn't you notice?" Naruto asked then faced the wall as cracks appeared on it, forming some texts.

_I'm so sorry Ellie_

"Mum?" Ellie asked as the binding removed itself. Ellie stood up from her seat, walking slowly to it as the cracks filled and reformed again.

_Yes, I never hoped I would see you again,  
>that was why I wrote that letter.<br>I thought I would have to die then_

"Is he…?" Ellie asked, moving closer to the cracks as it formed a single word "Yes" to confirm the question.

"What am I then? Some sort of monster? A freak?" Ellie asked weakly. The branches around the room rattled as the cracks faded away. It was about to form an answer but Naruto spoke up.

"A monster? No, my blood flow through your veins, blood of a primordial god. You are a demigod, but I prefer to call you a semidevil as it was more correct term to my offspring with mortals," Naruto replied, but before he could continue explaining the differences, Ellie ran out of the room to the only other as tendrils slid across the dinner table to stop her, but Naruto allowed the door to form.

"Let her go, she will learn to accept it, Eden," Naruto said and yawning a little in his seat and looking at the roots around him.

* * *

><p><strong>Author Note:<strong>

Some people asked me whether this is evil Naruto. Technically no, he's an Anti-Villain, if you don't know what that is… in simplest term, they are dark characters who have right goal but go about it wrong or immoral. I don't write about pure evil character because they have no redeeming quality. Naruto Namikaze would kill the world to save the world because he's not an idiot stereotype hero who wanted to save everyone. He understood morality and all its faults, sees things for what they are, not what they could be. In other words, he's a realist. Besides, he's a God; humans are insects to him; insignificants in the long run like we view insects.

While his stories are dark and grisly, I don't like finishing it on a bad note. There must be some light to the whole saga and there will be a happy ending of sort. See you next and final chapter!

**_Comment, criticisms and review are welcome!  
>Flaming and insults will be ignored!<em>**


	4. In the Garden

**Garden of Eden: Naruto x Last of Us Crossover**

**Disclaimer: **This story is fiction, all the characters, names and places belong to their respective owners.

"Talking"  
>'Thoughts'<br>Names of Things  
>"<span>Memory Lane<span>"  
>"<strong>Demonic Voice<strong>"  
>(Thought Bubbles)<br>**_Important Stuff_**

Wrapping up everything! This is the last chapter of this part of NaN's saga with Last of Us universe. The ending was already hinted in the first chapter along with the title.

* * *

><p><strong>=[Garden of Eden]=<br>In the Garden**

"Death isn't the end, your fear is unneeded, you still exist now even if your body could not," Naruto said holding an orb made of light in his hand. It was a soul, compressed into a sphere as he altered its shape to prevent it from thinking it was still human, and it was easier to carry around like that. Before him was a burning pyre to cremate the mortal body that the soul once inhabited. The orb distorted a little, watching the flames as its memory was erased bit by bit. The white surface of the sphere rippled in his hand, trying to communicate, but he didn't reply until the fire before him died down completely, leaving ashen remains.

"Fire cleansed, returning everything to a blank slate. With it, all your sins are forgiven. What should I do with you now? Shall I send you to Tartarus or Purgatory? There's only a few place I could sent you since you're no longer among the living," Naruto asked as the orb glowed brighter then dimmed. He wrapped both of his hands around it, trying to feel its thoughts. It could not speak, but it could still communicate with a God.

"Why would you want to stay here? I will not undo it. If I did that to every world I came across then humanity won't learn anything in that end. They took my powers for granted and believed no matter what ever they did; I could fix it for them without a second thought. That's wrong, they should not be thinking like that. You polluted your own world, and the nature simply returning the favor now, and lingering here would not bring you any joy. You should let it go as you will be much happier," Naruto suggested as the orb's surface flickered, letting out some white flares before it stopped then pulsed.

Naruto sent out a small chuckle after a moment.

"Alright," Naruto said with a small smile. He crouched down on the dirt as a small tree sprouted out of the ground before him.

"I will let you see the world through another point of view. Perhaps then, you can understand the Earth and all of its suffering as you are part of it now… Anna… no, you shall be known as Eden from now on," Naruto pressed the orb into the stem as the tree glowed brightly. The ground below it budged up a little before roots emerged from below. That was 15 years ago.

It should had forgotten all of its past, but it didn't. Fire cleansed all or so he said, but still it hold on to a single piece of memory. It should have let that go, but it couldn't. It wanted to know. Her joys, her suffering, her doubts, her sins; how did its child had lived through all those years. Was the girl still its child? It wasn't Anna anymore. Eden was its name now. But still, it remembered the child that it gave birth to when it had a mortal form in another life. Like he said, it had seen the true nature of humanity in the fifteen years it roamed the world and finally returned back to the place that it once called home. Everywhere, people continued to kill each other just to get a bit ahead. Was a life that insignificant? It didn't know the answer to that even now.

Ellie was depressed. She rolled herself up in one corner of the room and away from the door. She couldn't accept the simple truth. "I'm not human," was what went through her minds over and over again. Perhaps believing she was human and could have human's relationship was the only thing that anchored her to reality, no matter how dark and grim everything felt. Having been raised in an environment where the modern standards and values had deteriorated, Ellie still believed in them even through all the craps she experienced. She seen the darker sides of them, but some really stood out.

However, fate likes to screw with her as one by one; those that she loved were ripped from her life, leaving her alone. Ripley, her best friend, was the first. Tess, her guardian, was the second. Sam, the boy around her age, was also taken. They all left her, and now she also realized her parents left her the moment she was born.

Monophobia really had afflicted her, and she wanted someone by her side through the coming dark days. She didn't want to lose the only person she came to care about. Her green eyes wandered around the room from her spot, and before long roots started emerged from the wall, covering over her body like some sort of blanket. Fiery spheres were floating around above the room, starving off the encroaching darkness. Ellie knew then that she wasn't alone.

"Mum?" Ellie asked as the roots across her arms twitched and grew bigger. Cracks formed on its body.

"I am here… now and always," Eden… no, Anna replied.

"What happened to you? Why did you leave me?" Ellie asked weakly. The root paused for a moment but Ellie insisted on knowing the truth. It complied with the girl's wishes and spread across the wall of the opposite side in the room. Tendrils was wrapping around each other to relay the story that occurred near the end of its mortal life. The event of what had happened to a woman named Anna those years ago, just before Ellie was born as the rest of the memory before that was already gone.

**XxXxX**

Anna was part of a revolutionary militia group called the Fireflies. It was founded sometime after Cordyceps Brain Infection outbreak in response to the US military's martial law placed on the quarantine zones. The organization was led by her best friend, Marlene, and their goal was to return all branches of government in the wake of military oppression by FEDRA, whom they viewed as tyrants. Support from the public increased when soldiers executed at least six of the Firefly's members and their movement was in full swing.

During one of her faithful scavenging run, trying her best to be useful to the cause, she met a blond.

"You're in a hurry," the blond said, sitting leisurely at a bench. Around him littered chunk of flesh as if they had been torn apart by something gruesomely. Anna glanced around and realized some of the deceased were members of her organization as several severed head were someone she knew. There were also many others she didn't know along with numerous infected. Anna quickly aimed her semi-automatic shotgun at him as he raised an eyebrow, looking down the barrel of the weapon. Besides that, he showed no hint of concern for his wellbeing.

"Who are you? What happened to them?" Anna demanded answers.

"I'm Naruto…" he said as she moved closer to him, minding her step. To her surprised, he disappeared in a crimson flash right before her eyes.

"Don't point that thing at me or you will join them," Naruto whispered to her ears from the side. Startled, Anna turned around and fired on reflex, but missed as he sidestepped out of the way. Before she could reload the shotgun, he placed one hand on the barrel of the weapon and bended it upwards with his finger as if it was made of soft plastic. Anna couldn't believe her eyes at that as she dropped the weapon from her hand. It was useless now, and she took out a crowbar from her back. She was about to swing it across his head, but he vanished again. Agitated, Anna scanned around and saw the blond was back to his original spot, sitting down and still surrounded by corpses.

"… They tried to mug me and I refused, then they tried to muscle me into it. One thing after another and here we are," Naruto answered the girl's second question.

"The Fireflies would never do something like that!" Anna asserted, pointing at the deceased comrades while still holding her crowbar tightly in her hands. Naruto simply yawned at the declaration and then eyed the girl once more. He outstretched his right hand and Anna felt the crowbar was trying to pull itself away from her grip. She tried to stop it but the invisible hand was very strong, and she had to let it go after losing the battle. The weapon flew into the blond's hand. He glanced at it before channeling his energy through his limbs to bend the bar, rolling it into a ball and threw it to one side.

The clumsily crafted metal ball bounced on the pavement twice before rolling along it while Anna watched with a stunned expression. She was speechless. It was impossible for anyone to do something like that. She fidgeted her handgun to her waist, but refrained from taking it out as the blond probably destroyed it as well.

"Firefly…" he murmured, trying to remember who they were as his eyes wandered around the area. When something clicked in his mind, he faced her again.

"I think you gave your friends too much credit, what makes them different than the others people who tried to survive? Everyone always do things that benefit them whenever given the chance. I'm sure some of your friend has murdered people without anyone looking," Naruto stated flatly. It was true enough in his eyes as he already witnessed it firsthand. Firefly and Military were two sides of the same coins in his opinion. It was a coin soaked in blood. Even if they spoke of freedom and liberty, they would still commit atrocities in the name of justice; their justice.

"We are not those kinds of people! We only want peace and order to return again, and I believe in them doing the right thing once we overthrow the oppression of the military," Anna argued as the blond cracked up a little. She was slightly enraged, but tried to stay composed.

"Funny, okay, prove me wrong, if you truly believe that, then would you like to make a bet? If you win, I will save this world and everyone from their fate, but if you lose, you will forfeit your live, your soul and everything that you are," Naruto retorted with a smile as he stood up from the bench. He walked slowly to her as she fidgeting the pistol by her side and wondered if she should pull it out and shoot him or not. Before she made up her mind, he was right in her face.

"What do you say? Shall we play?"

"You can save everyone?" Anna asked skeptically with a gulp. Naruto licked his lip a little and nodded.

"Come," he said as his felt his surrounding through his aura. When he found what he was looking for, he moved towards a spot.

Naruto showed her proof that that it can be done with his power as they found some infected loitering around. The blond grabbed a Clicker nearby while killing the rest with some strange spherical ball with the other hand. It shredded those infected apart effortlessly. The one in his hand groaned, trying to break out of his inhuman grip. His eyes turned into rippled pattern as he ripped out its soul and created a new body out of nowhere. Naruto then placed that soul inside the new body. Anna was beyond shock throughout the whole display. She couldn't see the soul, but she saw the blond create a body out of nothing.

"Where am I? How did I get here? Who are you?" the revived man asked.

"I'm Anna, do you know where you are?"

"No… I'm Vincent, I remembered I was fighting against some sort of viral outbreak with my company, people were running everywhere until one of them…" Vincent said, holding his head a little. He was having a headache as memories flooded back into his mind.

"As you can see… I can even return those that infected to normal including the dead if their soul still around," Naruto said with a smile as Anna helped Vincent up. The former infected was still holding his head in discomfort. He would be so for a while, and Anna suggested they headed back to one of the Firefly's base in Pittsburgh.

"Aren't you coming with us?" Anna asked as the blond sat back down on the bench again.

"Nope, but I will be watching, show me that humanity is worth saving," Naruto said as he lay down on his back and began snoozing off without a single care in the world. Anna sighed and helped the man away from the spot. A small insect with ringed eyes landed on her shoulder as it began spying on her.

Anna and Vincent returned to Firefly's stronghold. She met with Tommy first at the front gate.

"You're back… thank god, Marlene was getting worry," Tommy said, greeting her. He had left his brother, Joel, and the life of smuggling behind due to the thing they had to do. The atrocities they committed still gave Tommy nightmare, and he joined the organization in hope for a better future.

'God….' Anna thought about the blond before introducing the man next to her.

"This is Vincent, he wanted to join us, he have military experience," Anna said, but Tommy frowned.

"Are you sure he's not with FEDRA?"

"I'm sure," Anna answered and wondered if she should talk to Marlene about the certain blond she met and what happened to the rest of scavengers before her. They would put her in a loony bin if she told about a man who could resurrect the dead so she refrained from saying anything that could make them edgy or worst, like trying to hunt him down. That would be a bad idea.

The fireflies in the city were instigating a revolt to overthrow the military dictatorship, and she didn't want them to think she was mentally unbalanced. Vincent voiced his opinion about the plan, but as a newcomer, he was ignored. They did not trust the man at all, and he felt a bit isolated. However, Tommy quickly warmed up to him under Anna's insistence and they quickly became friends of sort.

The group carried out the plan; however their actions didn't yield the result Anna had hoped. Once the military was overthrown and the citizens regained control of Pittsburgh with a newly elected leader from their own people, a tragedy occurred. Three teenagers were put on a public trial for killing a small family of survivors that was passing through town. The elected leader, instead of prosecuting them, congratulated the teenagers of securing supplies and ordered the rest to follow their example. This was met with some protesting and outrages from the Pittsburgh's citizens but eventually it became common practice. This was the first example of a Hunter, where they would trick outsiders by pretending to be injured, and then proceed to rob and kill when the outsiders stop to help.

"They can't do that!" Anna shouted with horror as Tommy shook his head. The Firefly was evacuating from the city as this place was lost to them.

"I told you this would happen if you handed power to the people, they would have no clue what to do with it and only see the short term benefit," Vincent restated his opinion. It was largely ignored by everyone in the organization. He was standing by Tommy, who had become disenchanted with the cause somewhat. They felt that they were simply replacing one tyrant with another.

"Anna, let's go or they will kill you too," Tommy said, remembering the Hunter began hunting down outsiders that they called tourists.

"I will stay here for a bit…" Anna replied, checking out the empty room as a voice whispered into her ears. It was the familiar voice and no one besides her could hear it. Anna knew then she could not go with Tommy and Vincent, and it might be the last time she saw them. Both men nodded and left the room, leaving her behind as she watched the citizens outside with dulled eyes. A clattering sound came from behind forced her to turn around. She saw a blond yawning a little in one of the chair as he spun some object he found on the table.

"I told you so, and now you've lost," he said with little emotion. He looked up at her as bright blue met burnt out green.

**XxXxX**

"What happened after that? Mum?" Ellie asked, seeing how the root stopped for a while.

"I offered myself to him for some extra time; I wanted to show that we could change and there was some good left in people," the roots relayed the answers on the wall. Ellie's heart dropped as she learnt of the event of how she was conceived. In the end, her mother couldn't show a good side of humanity and neither could she. Was there anyone worth saving? Ellie thought about that for a bit.

"Where's Joel?" Ellie asked as the root vibrated a little. Ellie asked again several time, and was about to throw a tantrum before Eden opened the door for her. Ellie looked outside of the room and noticed the dining room was sealed up again. She stepped into the corridor the root slid across the ground in front of her. Ellie followed as new hallway was formed right in front of her. Down the hall was another room as fiery ball drifted around her, lighting the way.

"JOEL!" Ellie shouted as she saw the man on the floor of the room with roots wrapping around his body to stop him from injuring himself. His fists were bloody. No doubt, he had tried to break out of the room, but other than that he was completely fine. His fatal injuries were gone and Ellie was thankful for that even though she knew now who caused it.

"Baby girl… you're alive," Joel said with some comfort. He was still trying to break out of the binding but to no avail as it increased its strength, wrapping around his limbs and neck tightly. Ellie tried to check him over, but…

"Stay the fuck still, Joel. Mum, can you," Ellie asked as the root paused for a moment before untangling itself from the man's body. Joel quickly got up and pulled Ellie closed to him and away from the roots as the wall rippled a little.

"It's okay, she won't hurt us," Ellie assured him.

"What's going on?" Joel asked, looking around after taking the girl's words for it. Ellie relayed what she knew of her parents with sadness and a hint of anger in her voice. She felt like she was abandoned, but that wasn't the case. Her asshole of a father took her mother away.

"Where is he now? I mean your father," Joel asked afterwards.

"I don't fuck know and he's not my father, he's a sperm donor!" Ellie retorted angrily.

"Ellie, your father is very powerful, and from what I can tell, he might able to save everyone if you asked him to," Joel suggested but a chuckle emitted from somewhere in the shadow of the room. The duo tried to locate as sphere of flames drifted around, illuminated all the corners, revealing a blond who seemed like stood there for a while.

"Right, I will save you all just because musume asked, even if she begged, I wouldn't do it," Naruto replied with some sarcasms in his tone. Joel had no come back to that at the moment as he was checking his body for any form of weapon. He didn't feel safe being completely unarmed.

"Don't call me that, I'm not your fucking daughter and you aren't my dad!" Ellie shouted as Naruto shook his head a little. He disappeared in a crimson flash and appeared next to the girl. His face was right in hers as she flinched. Ellie then remembered what he was capable of and pissing him off was not a good way to go.

"Then shall I take back what was mine? Your blood, your bones and your flesh as they came from me," Naruto hinted ominously while Ellie trembled at the thought. Her mind was invaded with vision of her death several times over before the blond snickered and stood upright again. Ellie had no idea if he was joking or not and quickly hid behind Joel. She didn't know why, but for some reason she thought Joel could protect her. That was illogical as she was shivering from the fear.

The roots spread across the wall as Ellie noticed it and stopped being a frightened little girl. She hoped her mother would protect her.

"Alright, stop that," Joel requested as Naruto looked at Eden. It was hinting something before Naruto rolled his eyes a little.

"Do you have a daughter, Joel?" Naruto asked after turning back to the man with a brief glance at Ellie.

"What's that have to do with this?" Joel asked with uneasiness. Naruto watched the man's posture before exhaling a little.

"Just making conversation, but I take it as a yes from your reaction, what was her name?" Naruto asked another question. However, Joel remained silence.

"I assumed she must have died for you to take care of musume now like a daughter. Do you want her back?"

"What do you mean…" Joel began but then realized what the blond implying.

"Yes, I'm a God, I can resurrect anyone, but I want to know what you would do to have her back, your real daughter," Naruto said while his eyes turned into rings as the room expanded, increasing in size and purple mist erupted from below them.

"Joel…" Ellie whispered as the said man shielded her.

"It's gonna be alright," Joel reassured the girl, but inside was the opposite.

A massive gateway with chain emerged from the mist with two skeletons adorning on each side. They do not look human at all with many more limbs. The demons began to shift a little as if they were alive without any flesh. No, they were from the way they moved. Joel and Ellie were stepping backward unconsciously away from the undead skeleton as the purple fog spread across the floor. The temperature of the room dropped sharply as Naruto placed his hands upon the gate.

"**Who are you? How did you summon us?**" one of the skeletal being asked. No one should have able to summon it. Every world has different King of Hell, and they usually take the form of a doorway, portal or an orifice like someone's mouth. The last one was stupid in Naruto's opinion.

"I did, now shut up the fuck up," Naruto retorted as his power flared up. The skeletal creatures felt the power emanating from the blond before looking around the room and glared at the duo. It then returned back to the blond with a growl. Naruto sighed and put his hands up in defense as his aura didn't make it submissive. Killing it wouldn't do him any good anyway, and one does not fuck with death.

"My bad, I'm sorry, I will pay the price okay?" Naruto apologized as the skeletons nodded. They hinted that it would be costly for him, but Naruto stated that he would accept the price.

"With this, you can bring back a soul and I can create a new body for that person. They would live again, I will let you bring one person back from the beyond," Naruto declared after looking at the two mute. Their back was against the wall. Naruto sighed a little at the sight. This was not his realm and he would have exchange something to bring someone back. One soul does not equate to another and bringing back a prized soul, especially heroic ones, would be very costly to him.

However, Naruto had plenty of souls of his own to trade. If he didn't have enough on him, he would go out to the world and slaughter a few people to steal their souls, and if he must, he could head to Tartarus or Purgatory, his domain, to get them. He wasn't about to do that as monster's soul was worth a lot more than human souls and he didn't like to be cheated.

Naruto coughed several times, trying to break the two out of the stupor as the skeletons was waiting patiently for them. After a while, they got over their shock and understood what they were given.

"Can you bring back Riley?" Ellie called out as the skeleton gazed into her eyes, trying to see who she was thinking of. However, it shook its head afterwards.

"**That soul has not passed through**," the skeleton replied. Joel, on the other hand, asked for Sarah, his daughter, but the skeleton gave him the same response. Ellie gave a lazy stare of 'you lie' or 'you suck' at Naruto, who sweat-dropped a little. The blond scratched his cheek and unsummoned the gateway. Naruto wondered why the souls they requested had not passed through the gate yet.

"When did your daughter died?" Naruto asked Joel after leading them to the dinner room. Ellie followed Joel like some sort of puppy which ticked of Naruto somewhat. She was very strong willed before and now she was like a child who only learnt how to walk.

"Thanks mum," Ellie said as fruits formed on the tree's branches. Joel was a little edgy at seeing the roots covered the whole room while Ellie calling it mum. He took some of the fruits from the girl. It gave him some memory of the past before the outbreak as the succulent juices rolled on his tongue.

"Sarah… died 20 years ago," Joel began and relayed what happened to his daughter to the blond. Sarah died from a gunshot wound in the abdomen by a soldier who had the order to kill anyone escaping from the outbreak, including civilians. It was an illegal order, but the soldier carried it out nonetheless. His brother, Tommy, arrived just in time to save his life, but it was too late for his daughter. Joel pleaded her to hold on and not to close her eyes, but she died in his arms seconds later. She was only twelve then.

Ellie was looking down at the table from hearing the story while Naruto rubbed his chin a little. He felt no empathy for the man as he had seen plenty of death already, and one more wouldn't make that much of a difference. He had seen world burned and family tried their best to save their loved ones. However, he was concerned a little. The story didn't explain why Sarah's soul was not found.

"What about you, musume, who was Riley? Was he your boyfriend?" Naruto asked with some teasing before Ellie leered at him with annoyance, but she decided to let it go. He was right, she was his daughter whether she liked it or not and getting upset about it would be pointless. Furthermore, she did like Riley more than just friend. However, Riley wasn't a boy.

Ellie and Riley were caught off-guards by a group of runner that attracted the sounds of music they themselves set off as they were messing around in an abandoned mall. They managed to evade the infected and killed them all slowly, but not before both were bitten. Knowing the bite mean certain death, Ellie lost hope, but Riley tried to console Ellie by telling her the two options they have to deal with their situation; they could commit suicide, or they could wait out the infection together and fight to stay alive with what time they have left. Riley said she preferred the second option. They sat by each other sides and wait for the end to come. Unfortunately, the end never came for Ellie.

"I'm still waiting for my turn…" Ellie whimpered as Naruto rolled his eyes a little. Several thoughts went through his mind before he stood up. He knew what had happened and the reason why their souls were not found. It was taken. He didn't like to meddle with time as it likely to create paradoxes. His eyes become rinnegan as the circular pattern tilted a little to form a spiral. He looked into Ellie, who blinked.

"Sleep," Naruto said as the spiral spun, hypnotizing the girl instantly. Ellie became drowsy very quickly and collapsed on the table. Even as she fell asleep, she still insulted him. That brought a smile to his face somewhat.

"ELLIE!" Joey called out but roots covered his body and held him down on the chair.

"You're using Ellie as a replacement for your lost daughter, you called her baby girl, but she's no longer a baby. She had grown now, and staying with you will only end bitterly," Naruto said.

"I'm not letting her staying with a jackass like you," Joey snorted loudly as Naruto shook his head.

"I don't mean me. I do not usually stay with my children, they are… how you say, shouldn't be dotted upon. They must make a name for themselves, but she went through enough. I will give her a future she could look forwards to along with your daughter of yours as I know what happened to her now. However, you must let her go. Think about it while I go fetch two souls from the past," Naruto said before disappearing in a crimson flash. Hiraishin was **_time_**-space ninjutsu after all. Silence filled the room again as Joey contemplated the blond's words.

"Fucker…" Ellie mumbled in her sleep as the roots covered her like a blanket.

**XxXxX**

"Oh no…" Joel panicked as Tommy shot the soldier that tried to kill him. He turned around and crawled over to Sarah as she held her abandonment in pain. Crimson liquid escaped her body, dampening her clothes.

"Okay. Move your hand, baby," Joel stay by his daughter's side. He wanted to check her wound and hope it wasn't fatal. Unfortunately, it was as the twelve-year-old gasped in pain.

(…)

"You're gonna to be okay. Baby. I know it hurt, but stay with me. " Joel begged, but Sarah panted rapidly before she finally died in his arms from her wounds. Tommy and Joel couldn't do anything to stop her bleeding to save her life.

"Baby... Don't do this to me, baby."

"Common… wake up… No, no… Oh no. no. no…. Please. Oh. God."

"Please, please, don't do this. Please God…" Joel sobbed, holding his dead daughter in his arms. A God heard as he was watching them in the distance. He outstretched his hand and attracted the girl's soul to him the moment it escaped her body. With his powers, he compressed it into a ball.

"One down," he said, looking at its luminance in the confines of his hands. He disappeared in a crimson flash to another time period.

**XxXxX**

Naruto watched Ellie and Riley running through the mall that they restored power to, knowing that the military that controlled the area had lied about it. The external light of the building did not work due to vandalism so they would be perfectly safe inside. Naruto watched them from the shadow as they chased each other around in the mall, playing like a couple of kids. They were kids after all as a smile crept across the blue eyes' face. He chuckled lowly, hearing them telling each other jokes from the book of puns.

The duo tried to take photo in a booth, but didn't know what facebook was before trying to print. Unfortunately, it ran out of paper as they headed off after Ellie pounded the machine until it lost power. Naruto entered the booth after they left, fixed it up and created the necessary material for it so it could print from saved memory. He looked at the picture of the two on the strip before he pocketed it for memory. Naruto continued to follow them as he heard groaning beyond the gate. Runners were trying to break in as they heard the music playing from inside.

Naruto couldn't do anything about it since that would create a paradox and what had happened already happened. Naruto ignored the impending danger and checked where Ellie and Riley were. He found them kissing each other with some alarm, but then a grin formed on his face. It was a perfect moment to create a portrait, and he did. Everything happened afterwards was exactly as Ellie had told him previously. The runner broke through and chased the duo through the mall as they navigated passed collapsed bookshelves and scaffolds. Little by little, they managed to wear down the runners one by one through sheer determination. Unfortunately, their luck ran out as one managed to tackle Riley, prompting Ellie to stab and slit its throat. Both girls were bitten as they sat down by each other's side.

"Let's just wait it out."

"You know we can… be all poetic and just lose our minds together," Riley suggested while Ellie sniffed a little after throwing a fit.

"What's option three?" Ellie asked, looking at Riley who apologized and said they should get out of here. They slept, leaning against one another, away from everyone else as they accepted their fate. They wanted to die together. Naruto kneeled before the two sleeping teenagers as he rubbed his finger across Ellie's face as she slept. They both must have been exhausted, spending the last few days together, doing everything they could since they were bitten.

Riley squirmed a little to the side. The infection had set in for the black girl but Ellie still remained the same as it would not affect her. Naruto continued to caress Ellie's cheek with a smile before grabbing the infected neck that lurched at him from the side. Without paying much attention to it, he snapped its neck and dropped Riley's body back to the ground before ripping out her soul. She would have killed Ellie if he did nothing.

"Don't say that I never did anything for you, musume," Naruto said, kissing her on the forehead as he disappeared in a crimson flash back to the future.

**Xx(Epilogue)xX**

"Hey, wake up, sleepy head," a familiar voice called out as she poked Ellie's rib. Ellie snapped her eyes opened and grabbed the hand, throwing the girl over her and sat on top. She was about to kill the person, thinking it was an infected. However, someone quickly grabbed her from the side.

"Stop, Ellie, don't," Joel called out as Ellie stopped thrashing. She remembered that asshole of a father made her fallen asleep and wondered what he did during that time. She looked up and realized it was Joel before letting a sigh of relief. However, to the man's side was a little girl.

"Daddy, is she Ellie?" The girl asked as Joel nodded. Ellie blinked, checking out the short, highlighted blond hair, and grey eyes girl. Ellie immediately realized this was Sarah, Joel's supposed-to-be-dead daughter.

"Ow… you almost kill me again," Riley laughed while holding her stomach. She sat upright as Ellie froze up. "What? Got nothing to say to me?"

"Riley? RILEY!? YOU FUCKER, I TOLD YOU TO STOP…. How?" Ellie shouted before realizing the surrounding had changed. They weren't in a dark wooden room anymore, but in a field with green grass stretched on for miles and miles. The only thing that stood out was a massive tree as fruits grew all over its numerous branches. There were plenty of kids chasing each other around it as Ellie watched them with some interest. Roots emerged from the ground and invited them to join the rest.

"I'm sorry I have to break my promise. Please look after Sarah for me, Ellie," Joel said as he nudged his daughter to join the other two. Sarah was sobbing, shaking her head. She didn't want to go, and want to stay with her father. However, Joel could not allow that as the world he must return to was not for her.

"Remember what I talked about, knowing that you are alright and happy is enough for me," Joey said before putting the girl in his embrace, trying to comfort her. He closed his eyes and felt his daughter in his arms one last time. He didn't want to let her go, but he must for her to be safe.

"What do you mean Joel?" Ellie asked.

"I can't stay here as I am not allowed," Joel told Ellie, letting Sarah go, "Go, play with your cousin, and be strong!"

"BUT YOU PROMISE!" Ellie shouted from the side as Joel exhaled. He looked at the clear sky and inhaled the fresh air. How many years had passed? Joel wasn't sure, but the blond said millions as the all traces civilization was corroded away time. Eden helped. The sentient tree replanted the world once more to give it a new beginning. However, the old generation, his generation, must not be allowed to join as they were relic of a dead era. This new future belongs to someone else.

"Tell that to your father," Joel said, looking beyond her with a smirk. Ellie looked around, but the blond was nowhere in sight. She been tricked and turned back. However, Joel was gone as Riley sighed.

"JOEL YOU ASSHOLE! WHERE DID YOU GO?" Ellie shouted, "DAD!? WHERE ARE YOU? GET YOUR FUCKING ASS OUT HERE!"

"Why do you keep calling Uncle Joel an asshole?" A boy asked, holding Sarah's hand while the girl sniffed. Ellie kept cursing at the surrounding, but the person she wanted didn't reply.

"Uncle? Who are you?" Ellie asked as the thirteen year old nodded.

"I'm Joel… my mum and dad named me after my uncle; they left me in this tree before saying goodbye. I missed them, but they said they would always be with me and that Eden would take care of me now. She would take care of all of us," Joel answered. He remembered falling asleep in a cocoon and awakened again in a different world along with many other children. They were all afraid at first, but quickly warmed up to Eden as the tree provided them with everything they needed as well as teaching them new things.

"Who's Eden?" Ellie asked as all the kids pointed at the massive tree. The tree creaked and the wind whispered her name. "Mum…" Ellie muttered as roots came out of the grounds, forming sheltered for the kids and her. It also created cotton and started knitting as well along with many other necessities. The air was completely clean and several relic of the past could still be found like metal billboards. They were covered in dirt.

"Are you Ellie?" Joel asked as Ellie nodded. "Oh cool, Uncle Joel told me a lot of stuff, like about your dad… do you want to hear it?"

"Dad…" Ellie mumbled and nodded. The children gathered around and listen to Joel retold the story about his Uncle and a God that make this place possible. Ellie and Riley found the portrait later as it was left behind by her father with some jabbing remarks. She was incredibly embarrassed, but could not be angry at him. He was okay with her liking Riley and was about to switch Riley's gender, but that would be very weird.

**XxXxX**

"You're back, SHIT! YOUR BACK… I'm so sorry, Ellie ran off somewhere and I couldn't find her at all," Tommy called out as Joel walked through the gate of Jackson County. Everyone was busy looking for the girl but Joel simply shook his head with a smile.

"Don't worry about it, she's safe… with many others," Joel said as everyone raised an eyebrow. What the fuck did that mean? Joel would never let Ellie out of his sight if he could help it, but he did. The man was more cheerful than usual. The hardened veteran and a father remembered back to the dark room when the wall finally retreated back to the ground after their conversation, revealing a different world with many children running around nearby. It was just like what the God had told him. He didn't believe it at first, but he couldn't denied what his eyes saw. They were far into the future, millions of years as the rest of humanity had died off.

"She will never know that you did all this for her?" Joel asked the blond, who simply answer with a smile. A dimensional portal opened behind him in midair.

"She do not need to, as long as I know she live a full life, then it would be enough for me. Now, you cannot stay here, you are a relic of the past; you must not linger around and contaminate the future. These kids have a new chance at life, and the error of your generation must not be allowed to repeat. Eden will make sure of it, and it will be a world she hoped and dreamed of," Naruto answered before pausing. He then continued, "and I know you will do the right thing, after all, you would sacrifice the whole human race for a single child."

Joel exhaled a sigh of relief, remembering that he had to kill Marlene and her Fireflies to save Ellie from certain death. But from what Naruto had told him, the attempt of procuring a vaccine would not have work anyway as it could not be create from Ellie since she was different to begin with.

Naruto nodded, seeing the man's expression. "I will let you say your goodbye, but do not try to hold on, remember what at stake. If you don't return, then the past will be changed," Naruto finished, walking through the portal as it closed behind him. A God was going on his next journey, and knew that Joel would do the right thing if it was someone he cared about. Both of his daughters' existence was the price he would have to pay if he didn't do as requested.

"Daddy!" Sarah called out as Joel rushed at her and held her in his arms for the first time in twenty years. Even if this was a dream, it was enough for him. Ellie was asleep on the grass while Riley was poking the girl. It will take some times for her to wake up.

"Uncle Joel?" a boy asked as he looked down at the child. It was a splitting image of his brother, Tommy, when he was younger.

Joel formed a wide smile as he remembered the sensation of holding his daughter and nephew.

"Joel?" Tommy asked the fourth time.

"Yea? What is it?" Joel finally snapped out of it.

"Why you just standing there smiling? It's kind of creepy, and we need to find Ellie, she might have left the County. If that's the case, she might be in trouble," Tommy said with concern as everyone nodded in agreement.

"She did and she's fine. I will tell you when my nephew comes into the world," Joel said, placing his hands on his brother's shoulder.

"How did you know it's a boy?"

"Oh… long story, I tell you when Joel is born," Joel said before Tommy pondered what his brother had been hiding from him, and how did Joel know he was going to name his child after his brother if it was a boy. Tommy hadn't even discussed it with Maria yet, and that would be one very awkward conversation.

* * *

><p><strong>Author Note:<strong>

Hope you enjoy the ending. I think I wrapped up everything. If I didn't, then I'm sorry and you just make something up to explain it. Yes, Earth begins anew again once the old world had died off. Eden spread her roots across the land as she watched over the children. It's kind of ironic that she hates children very much, but now she was their caretaker of them all and the earth was her garden of sort, thus the title.

Naruto actually saved Ellie when Riley changed. Otherwise, the girl would have died then. It wasn't a paradox. It was a stable time loop. Naruto had left to a new dimension as he felt his presence was unneeded, and Joey finally let the girl go. At least, he knew Sarah and Ellie would be fine.

Thank you for reading. Even if the story is complete, I will still add extra chapter whenever I feel like it as there are plenty of story to be told on Joel's end.

**_Comment, criticisms and review are welcome!  
>Flaming and insults will be ignored!<em>**


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